New Jersey unemployment gets worse

    It’s the first month with higher unemployment since December.

    New Jersey’s unemployment rate is up for the first time since December.

    The state Labor Department says the jobless rate rose slightly in July to 9.7 percent. More than 21,000 jobs were lost, most of them in the public sector, as local governments reduced their workforce to cut costs. Private sector employment also fell with significant losses in the construction and leisure and hospitality industries.

    Rutgers University economist Joseph Seneca says it’s a disappointing report.

    • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

    “Essentially private sector employment in New Jersey has been basically flat since the beginning of the year. We’ve lost a total of 18-hundred private sector jobs since December and that’s an economy that is really not going anywhere. It’s in a stall mode.”

    Seneca expects it will take another seven to ten years for New Jersey to recover all of the jobs that were lost during the recession.

    WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

    Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

    Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal