New Jersey residents enjoyed nearly 3 percent growth in their personal income over the past year, another good sign for a state economy that’s seen its share of mixed signals in 2016. Still, that rate trailed the national pace, mirroring a long-term trend that’s been playing out since the end of the Great Recession. John Reitmeyer, NJSpotlight Read more
August 1,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Politicians call them heroes and strangers thank them for their service.
But when their enlistment comes to an end, veterans need more than a pat on the back as they return to civilian life. They need jobs.
And increasingly, they seem to be getting them because the unemployment rate among veterans has been on the decline in recent years. In May, the veteran unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, down from 5 percent for the same month in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That compares to a 4.7 percent overall unemployment rate.
“I think in the last several years there has been a focus on the importance of hiring veterans and many businesses have taken that to heart,” says Nick Baucom, a U.S. Marine veteran who makes hiring veterans a priority for his company, Two Marines Moving (www.TwoMarinesMoving.com).
“But probably the biggest reason that the unemployment rate for veterans has trended downward is that, as a group, veterans bring with them experience and attitudes that make them great employees.”
Baucom’s moving company employs more than 100 veterans between its two locations – the Washington, D.C., area and Miami. He’s wants to hire more because his company is booked three to four weeks in advance and he could use the extra help.
“But with the unemployment rate for veterans dropping, it’s becoming more challenging to hire them,” says Baucom, who also is author of “On the Move: A Marine’s Guide to Entrepreneurial Success.”
“I can’t complain too much, though, because I’m glad so many other employers are seeing the benefits of having veterans in their workforce.”
Baucom says there are several reasons veterans make topnotch employees, including:
• Their tenacity. Veterans know what perseverance is all about, if for no other reason than they survived boot camp, an arduous challenge that puts a person’s fortitude to to the test. Marines, for example, must prove they can hike 20 miles carrying a fully loaded pack.
• Their decisiveness. People in the military don’t always have the luxury of taking all day to analyze a situation before making a decision. Yes, they must gather data and understand it thoroughly – but they understand the need to do it expediently. “A 90 percent solution now is better than a 100 percent solution later,” Baucom says. “Both in the Marines and in the business world, I’ve found that waiting for that 100 percent solution just leads to paralysis.”
• Their initiative. Anyone in the military learns to follow orders. But they also understand that there are situations when they need to take action in the absence of orders. If something needs to be done, they don’t have to wait to be told.
“I know that Marines go through quite an ordeal in their training and in carrying out their missions,” Baucom says. “When we ask them to move a piano, it probably doesn’t seem all that difficult in comparison.”
About Nick Baucom
Nick Baucom is the founder and owner of Two Marines Moving (www.twomarinesmoving.com), a moving company that has operations in the Washington, D.C., area and Miami. Baucom, who also is author of “On the Move: A Marine’s Guide to Entrepreneurial Success,” served in the U.S. Marines from 2002 to 2008, and was in Iraq in 2003.
Kerry Close @kerryclose
3:41 PM ET
Reversing growth in small business activity for the first time in four years.
Bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs: Now might not be the best time to launch your own business.
Total entrepreneurial activity in the U.S.—measured by the number of people starting and operating new businesses—fell to 12% in 2015, from 14% in 2014, according to a report released Tuesday by Babson College. The drop reverses upward growth in small business activity during the previous four years.
The findings could indicate that employees are satisfied with their jobs and unwilling to strike out on their own. But the research could also show a lack of confidence in the small business environment in the wake of the recession, Babson professor Donna Kelley told CNBC. The Small Business Optimism Index, a metric from the National Federation of Independent Business, has remained below its 42-year average since the recession.
https://time.com/money/4413251/small-business-entrepreneurship-decline/
The crisis facing New Jersey’s economy is severe and results from three continuing deteriorating conditions. The Transportation Trust Fund is broke, resulting in the suspension of projects needed to prevent the total deterioration of New Jersey’s road and bridge infrastructure. The income tax structure is a factor causing middle class senior citizen retirees to depart for the income tax-free state of Florida, thus diminishing New Jersey’s retail consumer base. Finally, the state’s high estate tax is causing the Garden State to hemorrhage wealth, as affluent taxpayers leave, eviscerating the state’s income tax base. Alan Steinberg, PolitickerNJ Read more
Ridgewood teachers are some of the highest paid in the entire State. We all want raises and better health care from our employers but most of us are just happy to have a job now. In fact if anyone I know behaved the way these protesting teachers have been they would be fired. The teachers don’t seem to understand that things are not great for a lot of people since the recession and recovery has been slow. Those who enjoy the security of tenure, and automatic raises can’t seem to grasp what is going on for so many of us struggling to pay our taxes. Hold the line BOE. Teachers unhappy with their jobs in our school system should look elsewhere. We don’t need malcontents in our classrooms and there are a lot of people who would be very happy to have their jobs..
July 10th 2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Politicians call them heroes and strangers thank them for their service.
But when their enlistment comes to an end, veterans need more than a pat on the back as they return to civilian life. They need jobs.
And increasingly, they seem to be getting them because the unemployment rate among veterans has been on the decline in recent years. In May, the veteran unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, down from 5 percent for the same month in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That compares to a 4.7 percent overall unemployment rate.
“I think in the last several years there has been a focus on the importance of hiring veterans and many businesses have taken that to heart,” says Nick Baucom, a U.S. Marine veteran who makes hiring veterans a priority for his company, Two Marines Moving (www.TwoMarinesMoving.com).
“But probably the biggest reason that the unemployment rate for veterans has trended downward is that, as a group, veterans bring with them experience and attitudes that make them great employees.”
Baucom’s moving company employs more than 100 veterans between its two locations – the Washington, D.C., area and Miami. He’s wants to hire more because his company is booked three to four weeks in advance and he could use the extra help.
“But with the unemployment rate for veterans dropping, it’s becoming more challenging to hire them,” says Baucom, who also is author of “On the Move: A Marine’s Guide to Entrepreneurial Success.”
“I can’t complain too much, though, because I’m glad so many other employers are seeing the benefits of having veterans in their workforce.”
Baucom says there are several reasons veterans make topnotch employees, including:
• Their tenacity. Veterans know what perseverance is all about, if for no other reason than they survived boot camp, an arduous challenge that puts a person’s fortitude to to the test. Marines, for example, must prove they can hike 20 miles carrying a fully loaded pack.
• Their decisiveness. People in the military don’t always have the luxury of taking all day to analyze a situation before making a decision. Yes, they must gather data and understand it thoroughly – but they understand the need to do it expediently. “A 90 percent solution now is better than a 100 percent solution later,” Baucom says. “Both in the Marines and in the business world, I’ve found that waiting for that 100 percent solution just leads to paralysis.”
• Their initiative. Anyone in the military learns to follow orders. But they also understand that there are situations when they need to take action in the absence of orders. If something needs to be done, they don’t have to wait to be told.
“I know that Marines go through quite an ordeal in their training and in carrying out their missions,” Baucom says. “When we ask them to move a piano, it probably doesn’t seem all that difficult in comparison.”
About Nick Baucom
Nick Baucom is the founder and owner of Two Marines Moving (www.twomarinesmoving.com), a moving company that has operations in the Washington, D.C., area and Miami. Baucom, who also is author of “On the Move: A Marine’s Guide to Entrepreneurial Success,” served in the U.S. Marines from 2002 to 2008, and was in Iraq in 2003.
By Andrew George, February 11, 2016 at 1:25 PM
The New Jersey Business & Industry Association released a report Thursday indicating that the outmigration of some 2 million New Jersey residents cost the state approximately $18 billion in net adjusted gross income in the years between 2004 and 2013.
“The $18 billion we lost during the years we studied had a significant economic impact on the state,” NJBIA CEO and President Michele Siekerka said. “During that period, we lost $8.4 billion in household spending, $11.4 billion in economic output, 75,000 jobs and $4 billion in total lost labor income.”
The study found that the majority of New Jersey residents leaving the state are migrating to Pennsylvania. New York was the second-most-popular destination for those relocating from the Garden State, showcasing that, while people are leaving in search of lower taxes, they also want to maintain a relatively close proximity to family and friends.
“This pattern underscores New Jersey’s need to stay competitive with its neighbors and those other states vying for our residents and businesses,” Siekerka said.
And it’s not just retirees, either. According to the report, millennials, which it defined as those between the ages of 18 and 34, are leaving New Jersey in the highest numbers.
file photo by Boyd Loving
July 5,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood
Ridgewood NJ, Applications are available for The New Jersey Civil Service Commission Law Enforcement Examination. The Ridgewood Police Department uses the eligibility list provided by the State to hire candidates. The test is given every three years. Click on the link below for more information.
1. Applicants must be citizens of the United States as of August 31, 2016.
2. Applicants must meet the residency requirements of the appointing jurisdiction as of August 31, 2016 and may be required to maintain continuous residency in that jurisdiction up to and including the date of appointment.
3. Applicants must be high school or vocational high school graduates, or possess an approved High School Equivalency Certificate by August 31, 2016.
4. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age as of August 31, 2016. Applicants for Municipal Police Officer and its bilingual variant positions cannot be over 35 years of age (one is considered over 35 on the day of his/her 35th birthday) as of August 31, 2016, unless they meet the exceptions in “Maximum hiring age requirement for Municipal Police Officer” as indicated on the Fact Sheet. NOTE: The age 35 maximum hiring requirement applies only to Municipal Police Officer and its bilingual variants.
5. Appointees will be required to possess a driver’s license valid in New Jersey only if the operation of a vehicle, rather than employee mobility, is necessary to perform the essential duties of the position.
6. Appointees may be required to pass thorough medical and drug screening, and psychological/psychiatric examinations. Failure of any of these is cause for removal from that title area.
7. Appointees will be required to successfully complete a training program mandated by the NJ Police Training Commission. This training must be completed prior to enrollment in the Police and Fire Retirement System.
8. After you complete and submit your online application, you will receive a confirmation page which includes a link and access code to the Candidate Preparation Guide. Please print your confirmation page prior to going to the link.
An abbreviated application is used for this title. Information regarding education, experience, licenses/certifications, training or internships is not collected.
https://info.csc.state.nj.us/vats/WebAnno.aspx
Melia Robinson
Jun. 30, 2016, 4:50 PM
A robot-powered burger joint is coming to San Francisco.
In 2012, secretive robotics startup Momentum Machines debuted a machine that could crank out 400 made-to-order hamburgers in an hour. It’s fully autonomous, meaning the robot can slice toppings, grill a patty, and assemble and bag the burger without any help from humans. The internet flipped out.
Years of relative silence ensued, but in January, Hoodline’s Brittany Hopkins learned that the San Francisco-based startup had applied for a building permit to convert a ground-floor retail space in the SoMa neighborhood into a restaurant.
Now it looks like the restaurant is actually happening. A job posting on Craigslist from early June gives us our first glimpse into how the company’s future flagship, presumably opening so on, might work.
https://www.techinsider.io/momentum-machines-is-hiring-2016-6
by Congressmen Scott Garrett
Ridgewood NJ, THE MOST important financial decisions in life aren’t made in Wall Street board rooms or by bureaucrats in Washington — they’re made around kitchen tables. Around these tables families look at their bills, their savings, their job prospects and their personal finances and try to figure out how to get ahead in this terrible economy. Unfortunately, the Dodd-Frank Act, the law that was enacted in 2010 with huge promises of economic recovery, has stifled the financial success of families, businesses and entrepreneurs.
And while you might not know Dodd-Frank by name, you have certainly felt its impact in your wallet. The architects of Dodd-Frank crafted an onerous maze of regulations and rules that put Washington priorities ahead of the needs of American families. Since Dodd-Frank became law, free checking has largely disappeared, and the American Dream has become more difficult to make a reality — especially if you’re self-employed — since it’s become harder to obtain a loan to buy a new house or start a business. In fact, the rate of new business start-ups is near a 20-year low, and last month’s jobs report was the worst since 2010.
Not only has Dodd-Frank made it harder for Americans to get ahead, it makes yet another bailout of Wall Street more likely. During the 2008 crisis, the taxpayers were forced to bail out big banks considered “too big to fail.” Today, those banks are bigger, and Dodd-Frank enshrines in law the expectation that taxpayers will once again be on the hook for costly bailouts.
I’m joining my colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee to propose a blueprint for American financial success. The Financial CHOICE Act — which stands for Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs — is designed to revitalize economic growth through competitive capital markets. This plan will fix the problems of Dodd-Frank by increasing punishment for crooks, ending taxpayer bailouts, scaling back poorly designed regulations and holding Washington accountable to We the People.
Penalties for fraud
To better protect consumers, the Financial CHOICE Act imposes the toughest — and most expensive — penalties in history for fraud and deception. The Securities and Exchange Commission will have new authority to increase punishment for repeat offenders and link fines to investor losses. This will make sure that fraudsters who stole or scammed huge amounts of money from inno-cent people won’t get just a slap on the wrist for their crimes.
Our plan offers economic opportunity for all and bailouts for none. Dodd-Frank made promises to end “too big to fail” that were never kept. We can end this cycle by forcing failing institutions to file for bankruptcy. Our plan reforms the bankruptcy code to protect taxpayers and instill much-needed market discipline. Taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for the mistakes of big banks and Wall Street, and under our plan they never will be again.
One of the key tenets of the Financial CHOICE Act is an optional “off-ramp” for financial institutions to break free of Washington’s one-size-fits-all rules. But the condition for being free of excess regulation is a strong capital standard, which means that banks will be forced to hold assets to back up their liabilities. By passing the CHOICE Act, we can both manage liabilities and let banks do what they do best: invest in the next American Dream.
Washington desperately needs transparency. Dodd-Frank created bureaucracies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that gave immense power to a single, politically appointed director who makes economic decisions on your behalf. The CFPB tells you what financial products you can have or not have because they think they know what’s best for you when it comes to loans, mortgages and car purchases.
Our plan makes the CFPB, and other unaccountable agencies, into bipartisan commissions. We would also require all financial regulations to undergo strict cost-benefit tests to make sure they’re not doing more harm than good. And we would change the system to ensure that all major financial regulations are approved by Congress before they are imposed on the American people.
Resistance by banks
I expect that it will be difficult to get support for bottom-up solutions like the Financial CHOICE Act in Washington. This plan is hated by big banks and crony capitalists that are all going to lose influence and power over the rest of America if this bill is passed. However, I believe that Congress can make this necessary reform with the support of people who are more concerned about the financial decisions made around kitchen tables than they are with protecting the interests of Washington insiders.
People in northern New Jersey don’t need economic reports to tell them that the economy is still in bad shape. We see it every day in our bank accounts and in our towns. Recovery can happen, and we can be prosperous again, but it has to start in our communities — not in Washington. The Financial CHOICE Act can help make that possible.
Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, serves New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District. He is chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises.
June 28,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Monessen, Pennsylvania , Donald Trump breaks with GOP stares down globalization and threatens to renegotiate trade deals . Trump repeatedly attacked Globalization in his Monessen, Pennsylvania speech on trade,
“Globalization has made the financial elite who donate to politicians very wealthy. But it has left millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartache”
Donald J. Trump spoke at the Alumisource Factory in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Mr. Trump’s speech focused on how to rebuild the American economy by fighting for fair trade. The middle class has collapsed because of the failed policies from Washington, D.C. that benefit the politicians, but not the American people.
Trump said, “The all talk, no action politicians have promoted globalization at the expense of American workers.”
Trump declared he will fight to put the country and its workers first in order to Make America Great Again. A transcript of the remarks can be viewed via the link below:
Declaring American Economic Independence
https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/DJT_DeclaringAmericanEconomicIndependence.pdf
Steve Adubato goes on location to the CIANJ Annual Legislative Dinner and speaks with Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R) who says our tax code needs to change if we want to improve our economy. As just one example, Ciattarelli believes we need to eliminate the Estate Tax to keep people in the state. Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ Read more
As a Democrat-backed plan to constitutionally protect public pension payments pushes closer to the fall ballot, an opponent on Monday cautioned that there is plenty of time to consider alternatives that won’t result in “economic armageddon.” Samantha Marcus, NJ.com Read more
As the Jersey Shore swells in population from tourists this summer, something is still missing — the full-time residents it has lost in the past 10 years. Erin Petenko, NJ.com Read more
June 12,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Career stability isn’t what it once was.
That’s why many workers frustrated with today’s corporate climate are venturing out on their own, offering their skills and experience to those very same corporations, but on a consulting rather than fulltime basis.
Certainly, there’s a lot to be said for going independent, says Aaron Zwas, a consultant and author of “Transition to Independence” (www.t2iplan.com), a book that serves as a guide to making such a change.
“You have more freedom and a healthier balance between work and family,” Zwas says. “It’s the be-your-own-boss opportunity many people crave.”
But not so fast.
Before you take the plunge, there are drawbacks worth knowing about.
“When I made the transition about 15 years ago, I didn’t have a lot of guidance,” Zwas says. “I didn’t really understand what I was getting into, so there was a bit of trial and error. The good news is that others can learn from my mistakes.”
If you’re considering going it alone, Zwas lists at least four pitfalls you’ll want to avoid:
• Prepare yourself financially. The transition from working for someone else to being independent almost certainly will require you to dip into savings. Take every precaution as you prepare yourself financially. A conversation with an accountant is a good start and so is reviewing your monthly budget to see if you can cut spending. Build up savings – preferably enough to sustain you through one year of expenses – before ending fulltime employment.
• Set your social calendar. When you’re independent, you have no co-workers to chat with, bounce ideas off of or play tennis with on the weekend. If you’re not careful, it can be a lonely existence. To compensate, Zwas recommends setting up regular dates with friends and family. You can also take up new interests or hobbies. “Get out of the house and be with other people,” he says.
• Stay focused on your expertise. Being a one-person team has its advantages, but it can also be a double-edged sword because many independents get pulled in too many directions by spending time on activities unrelated to their expertise. There’s no problem in admitting you don’t want to take on certain activities, Zwas says. For example, bookkeeping could be a chore you despise or aren’t suited for. You might want to contract out and let someone else handle it.
• Spend time on your personal brand. Some independents thrive without any personal branding efforts, but most need to do at least a little branding. A logo, a website, business cards, a presentation template, social-media accounts and a blog can help you create a professional image.
“A little advance preparation can go a long way in helping you become a successful independent,” Zwas says. “The most important lesson I’ve learned is that consulting is more than a job – it’s a lifestyle. Even on my worst days, I’m grateful for the freedom I have.”
About Aaron Zwas
Aaron Zwas, author of “Transition to Independence” (www.t2iplan.com), is a consulting journeyman with 15 years of independent experience as a strategic technology advisor. His T2I Plan (for “Transition to Independence”) provides a step-by-step approach that helps people move from traditional employment to a career as an independent consultant while minimizing the risks.
