- Increase in unemployment to 4.8% offsets April’s 4,800 job gain.
New Jersey’s labor market basically moved sideways in April. The unemployment rate moved up to 4.8%–the second straight increase—as the number of state residents at work fell by almost 2,900, and the labor force increased nearly 2,500.
The state’s job count rose by 4,800 from the revised March number, which was reduced a modest 300. There was a very large increase of 7,100 in education and health services, but much of that was offset by losses in trade, transportation, and utilities (1,100), professional and business services (1,900), and leisure and hospitality (2,800). Other sectors generally had small increases—though construction was down—especially financial services (up 1,600). One might speculate that the drop in trade, transportation, and utility decline might be related to the current tariff issues, but it’s too early to reach a verdict on that.
So far this year New Jersey has seen a seesaw monthly pattern of job movements—up one month, down the next. The net is slightly positive: April’s job count is 4,500 higher than December. New Jersey is not entering a period of heightened recession concerns in a very good place. New York’s numbers were somewhat better, with considerably larger job gain than us in April (15,400), but also a much large downward revision to the March estimate (7,700, compared to 300)..New York’s April unemployment rate was an unchanged 4.2%, with both employment and the labor force increasing.
