With a workforce shortage continuing and summer here, lawmakers may let teens work longer days and weeks and simplify the process for getting working papers.
Updated datasets from The Pew Charitable Trusts also show New Jersey's employment level suffered the fourth-biggest drop among states during the pandemic.
Just three states have higher unemployment rates than New Jersey's 7.2%. The state has added jobs each month of 2021 but is down 248,600 from before pandemic.
At the rate jobs have been added so far in 2021, it would take until the end of 2023 to recover pandemic-era losses. But things might speed up going forward.