N.J. unemployment rate dips slightly

State’s labor commissioners says the change is due to people leaving the work force entirely. Overall employment fell by 20,000 jobs.

New Jersey’s unemployment rate fell by two-tenths of a percent in September to 9.4 percent. But Labor Commissioner Hal Wirths said Wednesday the drop was not a result of increased hiring.

The change stems largely from people not looking for work and leaving the labor force, said Wiirths. He said overall employment fell by more than 20,000 jobs.

“The public sector went down by 10,800 jobs and the private sector went down by 9.400 jobs,” said Wirths. “The discouraging thing was in the private sector because we had three previous months of private sector job gains.”

Seven out of 10 industries had employment losses with the biggest decline in professional and business services. Manufacturing recorded some small job gains.