- Unemployment rate dropped from 4.7% to 4.5% in June, with employment increasing.
- Gap with US rate now mostly gone.
- Job count virtually unchanged (down 300).
New Jersey’s unemployment rate stayed on its recent, fairy marked, downtrend in June, dropping from 4.7% to 4.5%, the lowest rate since March 2024, and not far from the national rate of 4.2%. The state’s unemployment rate is now a full point below where it was last summer. The drop owes a lot to ongoing increases in the number of state residents at work; June saw a gain of 4,556, and the increase since March has been nearly 20,000. The ratio of employment to the state’s working-age population in June was one-half percentage point higher than a year ago. In contrast, the state’s labor force has been little-changed (the count edged down by just over 1,000 in June).
In contrast, the count of jobs in New Jersey was virtually unchanged in June (a decline of 300 was reported; there was also a small downward revision to the May estimate). Marked declines were reported for trade, transportation and utilities as well as leisure and hospitality. These sectors did show increases prior to seasonal adjustment, and it could be that seasonal hiring was slow, or delayed, in June. In contrast, there were marked increases in professional and business services and education and health. The pickup in professional and business services may have been due to shifts in seasonal hiring from May to June.
Recent developments in New Jersey’s unemployment rate and resident employment have been markedly better than the job numbers. It’s hard to put a finger on why this discrepancy has occurred. It follows a period—from early 2024 to the middle of 2025–when the reverse was the case, and perhaps illustrates the difficulties of drawing conclusions from looking at only one set of numbers.
On balance, New Jersey’s June numbers were a bit better than New York’s. The Empire State shed 1,400 jobs, and the unemployment rate was an unchanged 4.6%. June was the first month since January 2023 that New Jersey’s unemployment rate was under New York’s.
