GSI Analysis: June ’23 Jobs Report – NJ Labor Market in a Summer Doldrum

• Job total in the state in June virtually unchanged from May
• State’s 3.7% unemployment rate slightly higher than 3.6% U.S. average
• Labor force participation rate climbs to 65.4%, ahead of 62.6% national average  

 On July 20th, New Jersey’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development issued the monthly jobs report for June 2023. Dr. Charles Steindel, former Chief Economist of the State of New Jersey, analyzed the report for the Garden State Initiative:

New Jersey’s labor market was fairly lethargic in June. The total number of jobs rose just 600 from the revised May figure. May was revised up by 1,900, so June looks a bit better compared to the initial May number. No major sector saw an especially large change, up or down. Education and Health Services did add 2,000 positions, but the total there is more than three-quarters of a million. Leisure and Hospitality was up by 1,500. Offsetting these fairly moderate gains were losses in Professional and Business Services (1,600) and smaller ones in some other sectors.

The number of employed New Jersey residents rose a pretty healthy 8,800. However, the state’s labor force grew nearly twice as much: 16,600. The result was an increase in the unemployment rate to 3.7%, a notch above the national rate of 3.6%. New Jersey’s labor force grew more than 100,000 over the first half of the year. This is a very high rate; there were gains of that magnitude in the immediate aftermath of the worst period of the pandemic as the economy reopened, and even larger increases (for reasons that are unclear) in 2017. The recent increases would seem to reflect the generally stronger job market.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will issue its monthly “State Employment and Unemployment” report on Friday, July 21st, which offers a comparison of how New Jersey is faring relative to other states. In last month’s release, covering the month of May, New Jersey ranked 35^th in the nation.