Expert: New Jersey job growth will take 10 years

Forecasters expect the economy in Garden State to inch along for years before there is significant jobs recovery. The service and financial sectors will perk up first.

The latest economic forecast from Rutgers University indicates it will take several years for New Jersey to recover from the recession.

New Jersey has lost 269,000 jobs since the beginning of 2008.
Nancy Mantell, the director of the Rutgers Economic Advisory Service, said the economy in the Garden State is just inching along.

“There’s no one place that you can look and say this sector is in great shape. We do expect all kinds of service sector jobs and the financial sector to make something of a comeback,” she said.” But it’s just very slow.”

Mantell does not anticipate much job growth in the public sector for the next 10 years. She does expect New Jersey’s unemployment rate to return to its 2009 level of 9.2 percent next year and slowly fall to 5.5 percent by 2020.

She said most of the pickup in economic activity in New Jersey will be in the service and financial sectors.