New poll: NJ has improved in finding a job, owning a business (Opinion)

Despite how you may feel if you own a business here in NJ, a recent poll shows that the business climate here in New Jersey has improved in the past few years.

According to an article on ROI-NJ.com, a recent Rutgers Eagleton poll shows that nearly 2 in 3 residents viewed New Jersey as an “excellent” or “good” place to find a job, while 1 in 2 said it was an “excellent” or “good” place to start a business. (Last time these polling results were released was 2015 and they have improved vastly since then.)

According to the article, Rutgers Eagleton Center Director Ashley Koning particularly noted the increase on the business-based questions. So what’s going on? I don’t see New Jersey as a good place for business at all. I can’t even imagine who these people are that they are polling.

But I have a feeling that poll results are skewed by the way they ask the questions. You hear poll results all the time in this state and you really don’t know who to trust.

So let’s see what’s going on here:

Since the last survey on Dec. 15, people appear to be much more satisfied with living here at least when it comes to finding a job and starting a business. Here are the questions when asked to rate New Jersey as a place to find a job

Excellent: 17% (up from 5%)
Good: 47% (up from 29%)
Fair: 24% (down from 40%)
Poor: 10% (down from 23%)
Don’t know: 1% (down from 2%)
(Ya gotta love those “don’t know” people)

And, critically, here’s how people answered the question about running a business here in New Jersey:

Excellent: 12% (up from 6%)
Good: 38% (up from 29%)
Fair: 25% (down from 35%)
Poor: 16% (down from 20%)
Don’t know: 9% (no change)

It does appear to be easier to find a job here in New Jersey since the pandemic. We all know that remote work has lured many people to work in their living rooms, which is causing many businesses to be desperate for employees who actually want to show up for work.

In that respect, I suppose life has gotten easier here in New Jersey in the past few years. But a good place to run a business? I don’t know many New Jersey business owners who would agree.

We are one of the most heavily taxed and regulated states in the country. We have a leftie governor who has shown time and time again that he does not support small business. Small businesses are suffering more in this state due to non-pandemic causes than ever before. I wonder if they even asked any business owners when they conducted this poll.

But I think I’ve gotten to the bottom of why these results seem so skewed. The article admits that political inclination made a big difference on the question of running a business, as Democrats were twice as likely as Republicans to answer “excellent” or “good”. Duh.

Democrats: 62%
Independents: 53%
Republicans: 31%

To me, and most people who run small businesses in the state tend to be more conservative, or at least fiscally conservative. And Democrats in this state tend to say they like whatever the Democratic governor is doing so do these answers really reflect what New Jerseyans think?

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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