APRIL 29, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY MELANIE ANZIDEI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* More firms are for sale, but asking price is less than in 2014
More New Jersey small businesses may be on the market compared with last year, but asking prices for those businesses have declined.
A total of 1,867 small businesses in New Jersey were listed for sale during the first quarter, up from 1,801 in the same period last year, according to a quarterly report by online marketplace BizBuySell. The median asking price for the businesses, however, dropped to $265,000 this year from $269,000 in 2014, as median revenue for the companies rose to $445,778 from $420,000.
Though asking prices have fallen, business owners shouldn’t worry, according to Bob House, group general manager of BizBuySell.com.
“The decrease was only slight and shouldn’t be considered alarming,” House said in an email Tuesday. “It’s still good to see that the median revenue and cash flow of New Jersey small businesses increased slightly. These numbers indicate improving small business financial health.”
Goodwill is looking for sales-driven, customer focused retail professionals to join the team. Are you someone who has a retail work ethic and human services heart? If you’ve been searching for a workplace that inspires and rewards, we invite you to join us! We will be offering immediate interviews for Northern New Jersey stores.
This Thursday, April 30, we will hold a retail job fair at our Harrison Goodwill store from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some positions include:
Store Managers
Assistant managers
Third Key/keyholder
Store Associates
Cashiers
Production Workers
All interested candidates must have a resume to interview at the job fair.
Harrison Goodwill
Thursday, April 30
11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
400 Supor Boulevard
Harrison, NJ 07029
APRIL 26, 2015, 10:58 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2015, 11:02 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD
With New Jersey’s stubbornly high unemployment rate ranked seventh highest in the country, Governor Christie’s aspirations for higher office were always going to be weighed down by the state economy.
Though down sharply from the high point he hit in national polls after his reelection with 61 percent of the vote in 2013, Christie has not been counted out by presidential campaign veterans such as Arizona’s Sen. John McCain because of his ability to connect personally with voters, especially in early primary states where that kind of touch really matters.
But a report released last week by Congress’s Joint Economic Committee shows just how bad things are in the Garden State, compared with other states whose governors, or former governors, are also considering bids for the Republican presidential nomination.
New Jersey has logged a 5.6 percent increase in private-sector jobs since the economic low point of February 2010, but the increase has been 7.8 percent in Gov. Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, 9.7 percent in Gov. John Kasich’s Ohio, and a whopping 18 percent in Texas, where Rick Perry just left the governor’s mansion.
As for gross domestic product, New Jersey’s has grown by an average of 1 percent a year since 2009, compared with 1.8 percent in Wisconsin, 2.5 percent in Ohio and 4.4 percent in Texas. New Jersey’s recovery also trails Florida’s and Arkansas’, but Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee had already left the governors’ offices for the time periods being compared.
APRIL 27, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015, 1:20 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
n 3.8% rate in 2014, a drop from the previous year, was higher than all but six states
New Jersey had one of the highest rates of long-term unemployment in the nation in 2014, even as the state job market slowly improved, figures released last week showed.
The percentage of the state’s workforce out of work for 15 weeks or more in 2014 — on average, 3.8 percent — was higher than all but six states, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national long-term jobless rate was 3 percent. New Jersey’s rate tumbled from an average of 5.1 percent in 2013.
Charles Steindel, former chief economist under Governor Christie and now a resident scholar at the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College, said the high rate of long-term unemployed reflects the sluggishness of the New Jersey economy, which has lagged behind the national revival.
“New Jersey has had a weak recovery, so it’s taking people longer to find a job,” he said.
He added that the state’s employment insurance payments are among the highest in the nation, and that may allow people to take longer to find the right job.
After giving a version of his stump speech to a mostly gray-haired crowd in Iowa, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin was pressed on Friday by two twenty-something Republicans about a percolating issue he did not mention: immigration.
Mr. Walker’s apparent hardening on immigration has inspired a flood of reporting and commentary. Most recently he told the radio host Glenn Beck that he favored restricting legal immigration in tough economic times, a position to the right of most other 2016 presidential hopefuls.
He repeated that view Friday after a speech in Cedar Rapids, when Eddie Failor, 24, expressed concern “as a young Republican” that the party must make inroads to new voter blocs, including by supporting a comprehensive overhaul of immigration.
Mr. Walker told Mr. Failor that his top priority would be securing the border. He also said he favored “making sure the legal immigration system is based on making our No. 1 priority to protect American workers and their wages.’’
Alexander Staudt, the treasurer of the University of Iowa College Republicans, also told Mr. Walker in the meet-and-greet line that he was concerned that by talking tough on immigration, Republican candidates would turn off Hispanics.
Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr. called the bill package an “immediately attainable plan to help people find their long lost jobs and provide greater opportunities for families throughout this state.”
APRIL 23, 2015, 2:44 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015, 4:19 PM
BY DUSTIN RACIOPPI
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled a 36-bill package aimed at creating jobs and expanding economic opportunities.
The bills focus on areas that legislators say have stymied job growth and limited economic opportunity, like cutting red tape, offering more work training and overhauling tourism.
None of the proposals would cost a dime to taxpayers, lawmakers said.
Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr. called the bill package an “immediately attainable plan to help people find their long lost jobs and provide greater opportunities for families throughout this state,” adding that it “cannot fall victim to partisan politics.”
Republicans and the Democrats who control the Legislature have differing views on how to spur the state’s lagging economy, but 11 of the bills already have Democratic co-sponsors. Three bills have already passed the full Senate, and more than a dozen others are pending committees. Still, there is tension between the two parties over how the state can pull out of its economic slump.
“It is refreshing to see that the Republicans finally recognize that the governor has failed on the economy. New Jersey’s recovery has lagged far behind the country and our neighboring states because the governor has no plan to create jobs or to stimulate economic growth,” said Richard McGrath, spokesman for the Senate Democrats. “In fact, Democrats have sent the governor numerous job-creating bills but he has vetoed most of them. We will review these proposals to determine if they will help our economy. What’s needed is a far-reaching plan that spurs growth and invests in economic opportunities for everyone.” (editors note : try not to laugh on this one)
At a news conference Thursday morning to announce the package, legislators highlighted some of the problems that they said have stymied the state’s job growth.
For example, the state tourism council has not met in 12 years, said Sen. Robert Singer, R-Ocean. And although tourism generates $40 billion a year, the state has not done enough to promote what it has to offer, he said. A bill sponsored by Singer would overhaul tourism advertising and marketing, and it would create a mobile phone application to feature the state’s attractions.
There is also a skills gap in New Jersey, said Sen. Diane Allen, R-Burlington, who sponsors three of the four workforce development bills in the package. One of them would expand career and technical education, while another would help out-of-work casino employees get training for jobs in industries in South Jersey.
Legislators are also focusing on cutting red tape for businesses. One bill would create a task force whose goal is to digitize state permits, licenses and grants. Another bill would roll back “cumbersome” regulations on small business owners, while another would allow state agencies to offer online permitting “whenever possible” in order to move projects along faster.
The Republicans also defended New Jersey’s sluggish job growth. Although the state unemployment rate is at 6.5 percent, a percentage point higher than the national average of 5.5 percent, they said the state is adding jobs and moving in the proper
Economists have discovered how bad the economy really is
By Matt O’Brien April 21 at 8:00 AM
Unemployment is almost back to normal, but the economy isn’t.
That isn’t because the unemployment rate is a conspiracy to make things look better than they really are. It’s because even though the unemployment rate tells us the most about the labor market, it doesn’t tell us the full story. All it does is show us how many people who are actively looking for work can’t find it. But that leaves out the “shadow unemployed” who want full-time jobs but have either given up looking for them or can only find part-time ones. That usually doesn’t make that big a difference, but it does now, because, even six years after the crisis has ended, there still isn’t much that’s usual about this economy.
Now if you add it all up, this shadow unemployment means our jobs hole is more than three times as big as it looks. That, at least, is what economistsDanny Blanchflower and Andrew Levin found when they looked at how low the unemployment rate is versus how low we think it could go, how high the participation rate is versus how high we think it could go, and how many people can only find part-time jobs. That first part tells us how much further unemployment itself could fall, the second how many discouraged workers could come back, and the last how many people would work more if they could. In other words, it shows us the gap between how many full-time jobs we have and how many full-time jobs we need. The result, as you can see above, is that instead of being a million full-time jobs short, like the unemployment rate says we are, we’re about 3.5 million short.
APRIL 17, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY PAUL WISEMAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
WIRE SERVICE
* After struggles spurred by the Great Recession, job picture brightens
WASHINGTON — The consulting and accounting firm EY is aggressively recruiting on college campuses this spring. The company formerly known as Ernst & Young plans to hire 9,000 graduates from U.S. universities this year, up from 7,500 in 2014. But recruiting isn’t as easy as it used to be.
“I’m seeing a lot more competition” from rival employers, said Dan Black, EY’s Americas recruiting leader.
That’s good news for college seniors and graduate students preparing to accept diplomas this spring, and a sign that new graduates will fare better than they did in 2014. The Labor Department reported on Thursday that the unemployment rate for Americans in their 20s who received a four-year or advanced degree last year rose to 12.4 percent from 10.9 percent in 2013.
“This is a real breakout year,” said Philip Gardner, director of Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute.
In a survey of employers last fall, the employment center found that hiring of graduates with four-year degrees will rise 16 percent this year.
“It’s led by the ones you would expect — engineering and business,” Gardner said. “But there seems to be a lot of room for everybody. … Even arts and humanities are making a comeback.”
Employers have more openings to fill because baby boomers are retiring and more workers are feeling confident enough about the economy to switch jobs. Overall, the United States generated 3.1 million jobs last year, the most since 1999. The overall unemployment rate has fallen to 5.5 percent in March from 6.7 percent at the end of 2013.
At Global Economic Gathering, Concerns That U.S. Is Ceding Its Leadership Role
By JONATHAN WEISMANAPRIL 17, 2015
WASHINGTON — As world leaders converge here for their semiannual trek to the capital of what is still the world’s most powerful economy, concern is rising in many quarters that the United States is retreating from global economic leadership just when it is needed most.
The spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have filled Washington with motorcades and traffic jams and loaded the schedules of President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew. But they have also highlighted what some see as a United States government so bitterly divided that it is on the verge of ceding the global economic stage it built at the end of World War II and has largely directed ever since.
APRIL 15, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* State authority approves sizable grants
New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority on Tuesday approved more than $130 million in tax credits aimed at convincing several companies to expand in New Jersey, rather than in nearby states. The action included two sizable grants in Jersey City.
“The assistance approved at today’s meeting illustrates the breadth of programs EDA offers to support the revitalization of our cities,” the authority’s chief executive officer, Melissa Orsen, said in a statement.
The EDA voted Tuesday to offer Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., a private bank, $19.4 million of tax credits over seven years to keep 435 jobs in Jersey City. The New York-based company also said it hopes to add 110 jobs, some through growth and some through relocations from New York City. The project would bring the state a net benefit of $193 million over 20 years, according to the authority.
The authority also approved a $33.9 million worth of tax credits over 10 years to New York Life Insurance Co. to move 325 jobs from Parsippany to 30 Hudson St. in Jersey City, where it would hire 300 more workers. Without the grant, New York Life would consider moving the Parsippany workers to Manhattan or Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. The New York Life project would bring the state a net benefit of $430.4 million over 20 years, the authority said.
There was not a single employee of the Ridgewood Public School System who could have been promoted to fill the principal’s position at Orchard?
What does that say about top District management and the BOE itself if we have no viable succession program?
From last night’s meeting agenda:
iv. Appointments
Administrator
FERRERI, Mary, K. – Principal of Orchard School, effective
July 15, 2015 through June 30, 2016.
Mrs. Ferreri credentials are as follows:
Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, New Jersey
Master of Arts in Educational Administration – 2005
The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey
Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education/History – 2002
Experience:
Westwood Regional School District; Principal, George
Elementary School – July 2010 to present
Westwood Regional School District; Acting Assistant
Principal, George & Ketler Schools/Supervisor of
Elementary Programs/District Head Teacher K-6 – January
2009 to June 2010
Westwood Regional School District; Third Grade Teacher –
2002 to 2009
Westwood Regional School District; First Grade Teacher –
2002 to 2009
And the bottom 20%? They get paid by Uncle Sam. We compare tax burdens as Tax Day approaches.
By
LAURA SAUNDERS
April 10, 2015 9:59 a.m. ET
Who pays what in income taxes? With April 15 just around the corner, filers may be curious about where they fit into the system as a whole.
The individual income tax remains the most important levy in the U.S., providing nearly half of federal revenue. This is unusual: On average, developed nations get only one-third of their revenue from income taxes. Typically they also impose national consumption taxes, such as a value-added tax, that raise as much revenue as their income tax.
The pressure on the U.S. income tax has prompted lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to seriously consider a national consumption tax. But liberals worry that such a levy could unduly burden the poor, while conservatives fear it would be too easy to dial up the rate and collect more revenue.
As a result, experts say, there is little chance of tax overhaul this year.
Meanwhile, these two tables offer a snapshot of who is paying what for the 2014 tax year.
What will happen when all of the baby boomers in the U.S. retire at age 65 and the “remarkable” advances in medicine keep many of them alive into their 90s or even into triple digits?
It’s a recipe for disaster and the “math is scary,” says Mike Rowe, the star of the CNN original series “Somebody’s Gotta Do It.”
“They are going to be retired for 40 years? There’s just no universe possible where you have enough money to live on if you’re an average Joe, 40 years after punching out,” he told TheBlaze. “Part of the reason, I think, we’re facing such a mess is because people are truly still clinging to the idea that, ‘OK, I worked for 30 years and now I’m done.’ That’s crazy.”
Rowe, of “Dirty Jobs” fame, also said one of the biggest problems in pop culture is the tendency to make work the “enemy,” which he said is a very dangerous concept. And though the solution to the terrifying problem is complicated, he argued putting an end to the myth that people should work as little as possible would be a big step in the right direction.
“If the key to happiness is working less, we’re in trouble,” Rowe added. “It’s that simple. Work can’t be the enemy, unless it is, and if you make it the enemy — look out.”
No one can argue that Rowe is afraid to work and get his hands dirty. He’s practically turned performing uncomfortable, unique — and sometimes dangerous — jobs into a career.
Does anyone thinks it’s a coincidence the human resource and village manager are both from Bergen leads and this residency requirement is being changed when the hr person isn’t from ridgewood. Old friends from the bergen county program . Ridgewood owes a debt of gratitude to councilwoman knudsen for standing up for ridgewood residents when aronsohn, pucc and hack don’t care about the people they represent. What’s wrong there’s no one from ridgewood to fill these jobs.
Regardless of what the law might become, the fact is that these people are not willing to hire anyone now under the current law. That is outrageous. Holding off on hiring until they can change the law. Sounds like a massive lawsuit to me.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, the U.S. economy’s strength has been flagging.
Manufacturing slowed. Fewer homes were built. Cheaper gas failed to ignite consumer spending. Yet month after month, employers kept on hiring vigorously.
In March, the economy’s slump finally overtook the job market.
Employers added just 126,000 workers — the fewest since December 2013 — snapping a 12-month streak of gains above 200,000. At the same time, the unemployment rate remained at 5.5 percent.
The slowdown reported Friday by the Labor Department posed a puzzle to economists:
Was the tepid job gain a temporary blip due mainly to a harsh winter and an economy adjusting to much lower oil prices?
Or did it mark a return to the middling performance that’s defined much of the nearly 6-year-old recovery from the Great Recession?
No one will know for sure until the government’s monthly employment reports later this spring help gauge the direction of the job market. That leaves the U.S. economy — until very recently the envy of other industrialized nations — facing a renewed sense of uncertainty.
