N.J. continues to shed jobs

There were more job losses in New Jersey last month. The state Labor Department says employment in the Garden State dropped by 1800 jobs in October.

There were more job losses in New Jersey last month.

The state Labor Department says employment in the Garden State dropped by 1800 jobs in October. Labor Commissioner David Socolow says the retail trade industry had some of the biggest job declines.

Socolow: It shows up as a loss of more than 5,000 retail jobs in the month of October and that’s certainly consistent with what we’ve heard about the beginnings of the retail season in October. The start up certainly was not as strong as it has been in the fall of previous years.

The financial and business services industries each lost more than 3000 jobs.

The biggest job gains were in construction and manufacturing which each added 1600 workers.

A separate survey of households shows the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 9.7%. Socolow says it may be months before there’s strong job growth.