NJ jobless rate edges up to 4.5%

From the Asbury Park Press:

State adds jobs, but it trails the nation

New Jersey’s job market grew in November, but it failed to keep up with the rest of the country, according to figures released Tuesday by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

The state last month added 900 jobs, but they weren’t enough to prevent the unemployment rate from edging up to 4.5 percent from 4.4 percent in October, the department reported.

“At least we’re moving forward, but we’re moving forward very slowly,” said James W. Hughes, an economist and dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

It’s not unusual for the number of jobs and the unemployment rate seemingly to be contradictory. The jobs report is taken from two separate surveys — the payroll survey of New Jersey companies and the household survey of New Jersey residents. Economists typically put more stock in the payroll survey, because it comes from a larger sampling.

While New Jersey’s jobless rate matched the U.S. rate of 4.5 percent in November, job growth has been more difficult to come by.

According to Hughes, the U.S. job market for the first 11 months of the year grew by 1.24 percent. The New Jersey job market during that time grew by 0.41 percent.

New Jersey is on pace to end 2006 with 21,000 new jobs, compared with 46,000 new jobs in 2005, Hughes said.

“It may well be this reflects New Jersey’s high cost of living and housing affordability compared to other parts of the country,” Hughes said.

That means corporations wanting to expand likely will first look at states where it is less expensive to do business. But a slowdown in other job sectors — most notably, real estate — also might be taking a toll.