New Jersey jobless rate improving, still lagging the nation

Unemployment in New Jersey is now at a four-year low, but still worse than in the rest of the country.N.J. Labor Commissioner Hal Wirths says employers in the Garden State added 3,300 jobs in April.

“The unemployment rate dropped to 8.7 percent and that .6 [percent] drop in the last two months is the biggest drop since 1977. So we’re definitely improving very nicely here,” he said.

Wirths says more pro-business projects in the state are taking hold.

Education, health services, leisure and hospitality industries showed the biggest job gains last month, while manufacturing and construction employment fell.

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New Jersey has recovered about half the number of jobs lost during the recession, but still has an unemployment rate one percentage point higher than the nation as a whole.

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