Recession Over In NJ – Who To Believe [POLL]

You’re either out of work, underemployed, working more than one job to make ends meet (join the club); and hearing the news that we’re coming out of the recession; and you say what?
BS!

According to our recent report, Nancy Mantell, Director of Rutgers Economic Advisory Service says that our economy has “decisively” come out of the recession, but the comback will be modest because of ongoing problems in the United States and global economies.

“The Garden State’s public sector had contributed most of the growth in the pre-recession period and since May 2010, a huge number of public sector jobs were lost.

Since then, all of the growth has come from the private sector, so that is why the number looks so weak compared to neighboring states and the rest of the nation.”

But, and there’s a BIG BUT!

A new report suggests that we lost 8,600 jobs in March
…which is the first monthly job loss since August, denting hopes that a steady economic rebound is under way.

The state lost 11,600 private sector jobs and added 3,000 government jobs, according to the monthly jobs report by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Unemployment stayed at 9 percent, the same as in January and February, and well above the national rate of 8.2 percent.

The biggest loss came in the professional and business services sector, which lost 4,000 jobs. Construction lost 3,200 jobs and education and health services - usually a strong sector - lost 1,800 jobs.

And believe it or not, as a corollary to all this, more Americans are quitting their jobs than being laid off.

According to the government's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, 51% of employment separations (which could be retirements and things like that) came from employees walking away from their jobs.

That's up from 49.8% in February, and signals a milestone for the survey - more Americans are quitting their jobs than being laid off.

Maybe the great American worker knows something the folks in Washington and on Wall Street don't.

Or more likely, an increasing amount of Americans may have finally had enough of working longer hours for shorter pay, and are striking out on their own and setting up an office in the garage, or heading off to North Dakota and Western Pennsylvania to cash in on the shale oil boom.

With all of that, do you believe the recession is showing signs of easing in NJ?