the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Estimates released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that total nonfarm wage and salary employment in New Jersey increased by 129,900 in July to a seasonally adjusted level of 3,751,900. All of the gain was recorded in the private (+146,700) sector of the state’s economy. New Jersey has now regained a total of 341,300 jobs in the three months since a low point in April, or 41 percent of the jobs lost due to the coronavirus pandemic and shutdown measures taken in response to contain it. The state’s unemployment rate fell by 3.0 percentage points in July to 13.8 percent. See the technical notes at the end of this release for further information about the impact of the coronavirus on this month’s employment estimates.
Based on more complete reporting from employers, previously released total nonfarm employment estimates for June were revised lower by 8,400 to show an over-the-month (May – June) increase of 122,500 jobs. Preliminary estimates had indicated an over-the-month gain of 130,900. The state’s revised June unemployment rate was revised higher by 0.2 percentage point to 16.8 percent.
In July, job gains were recorded all nine major private industry sectors. In order of job gains recorded over the month, the industries were leisure and hospitality (+46,800), trade, transportation, and utilities (+35,000), other services (+23,400), professional and business services (+19,400), education and health services (+16,000), construction (+2,400), financial activities (+2,300), information (+1,000), and manufacturing (+300). Over the month, public sector employment was lower by 16,800, with the losses concentrated at the local government level (-12,300).
Preliminary BLS data for August will be released on September 17, 2020.
