From Newsday:
Companies have bleak outlook on N.J. economy
New Jersey’s business leaders are less confident in the state’s economy and business climate than they have been in more than a decade, according to a survey released Tuesday by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.
“In the midst of an apparent economic slowdown, our members see more of the same ahead: very slow growth,” said association President Philip Kirschner.
The annual survey of the group’s 1,700 members shows that 51 percent of respondents felt the state’s economic conditions would deteriorate in the first half of the year; only 12 percent of respondents expected things to get better in early 2007.
Respondents also gave the state low marks as a place to expand or renovate business facilities; only 17 percent of respondents described the Garden State as a good place for renovation or expansion compared to 28 percent in the association’s previous three surveys.
When it came to the state government’s performance, employers gave New Jersey low marks for its ability to control health insurance costs and government spending and taxes.
From the New Jersey Business & Industry Association:
Business Confidence in NJ Continues to Weaken As Evidence Grows of a Broad-Based Economic Slowdown
Amid evidence of a weakening economy, business confidence in the State economy and the State’s business climate has fallen to the lowest levels since the early 1990s, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association’s 2007 Business Outlook Survey has found.
While employers as a group have voiced growing concern about the near-term economic outlook at all levels—from the US economy to their own companies—their bleakest assessment is reserved for the New Jersey economy.
…
Kirschner noted that this year’s decline in confidence follows a sharp loss of confidence found in last year’s 2006 Business Outlook survey. That survey uncovered one of the most dramatic shifts from optimism to pessimism for the state and national economies in 22 years of survey data.“In hindsight, it is apparent that our members sensed the onset of the economic slowdown that now confronts us,” Kirschner said.
did we expect anything else. its getting worse
not getting better. NJ has turned into
nothing more than a welfare state.
The numbers don’t lie.
and the spending does not stop.
Being self -employed I can relate to this article.
Business has dropped off of the edge of the earth, it will take some time for it to show up on the radar—but it will.
Taxes, including the new sales tax, will help shut this economy down,unions will eventually kill the golden goose—Good Luck to all of us!!!!
Hmmm, bad like Detroit bad…?
No, bad like we will not be able to meet our pension obligations, unions will bankrupt nj
From the Star Ledger:
Business leaders gloomy about ’07
New Jersey business leaders have turned decidedly pessimistic about the coming year, according to a survey released yesterday by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.
“This is the least optimistic outlook of the last 16 years,” NJBIA President Philip Kirschner said during a Trenton news conference.
He said 51 percent of the 1,700 respondents expect the state’s economy to worsen in the first half of 2007, and 12 percent expect improvement. Weaker 2007 numbers are expected for sales, profits and employment, compared with expectations a year earlier.
“This recession indicator now has reached its highest level since September 2002,” Kirschner said. “But it’s premature to say that we’re heading for a recession. The numbers are still more positive than negative. The economy is growing, but the growth is very weak and sluggish. I don’t think we’re heading for a recession yet.”
Economist James Hughes, dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said, “The basic message (of the survey) is that we’re not going to turn around businesses’ perceptions very quickly. It is going to take some time to do that.”
jim
the unions arent bankrupting the state its the politicians. if they kept their hands off the pension funds the money would be there. just like s.s. the pols are screwing it up and the next generation will pay for it 401k style
“In the midst of an apparent economic slowdown, our members see more of the same ahead: very slow growth,”
Did anybody say puff to the 20% decline in property taxes??? Now with less revenue coming into the state, what’s the answer. Raise taxes??
The pols are between a rock and a hard place. The pension obligation is like a black hole. If they fully funded it, there would be nothing left for anything else unless taxes were significantly raised or services cut. Of course, cutting services means cutting union jobs, which NJ pols won’t touch.
I actually think its about time that state employees join the rest of the world and take at least partial responsibility for their own retirement in the form of a 401(k).
“unions arent bankrupting the state its the politicians”
In NJ, Union = Democrat Politician, they are interchangleable.
hmm. ok I asked this one before – Can the state go bankrupt
– or would it instead raise taxes on everybody to 40% for a few years??
Anybody date to suggeste timeframe whgen 30 trillions deficite and making more this years will finally catch um with NJ (eg – state will stop paying teachers/police/firefighters for a while because tehre will be no money)???
there will go our good schools and ….. wait what else is good in NJ again?? .. Ohh yea, Shopping malls…
So again any predictions/ways for the state to get out of debt (except unrealistic ones which will neve happed in NJ: govermental workers would have to start earning less than private sector again, no pensions/no unions)??
blablabla
was Whitman not responsible for investing pension money in tech stocks? is she a dem?
by the way they invested in reits in the past 2 years
“is she a dem?”
Yes, for all intents an purposes.
“Hmmm, bad like Detroit bad…?”
Already done that?