Unemployment Tumbling in New Jersey as Many Leave Labor Force
The unemployment rate in parts of southern New Jersey dropped the sharpest in the country over the course of 2013, though it was likely because more people dropped out of the workforce rather than found new work.
Unemployment in the three metropolitan statistical areas around Atlantic City, Ocean City and Vineland remained above 10%, according to a Labor Department report released Wednesday. A slowdown in the casino industry in Atlantic City could be one reason for higher unemployment there. Newer gambling spots outside Atlantic City, including in neighboring Pennsylvania, have taken business from New Jersey.
But even though the rates are high, they were down by four percentage points or more in each area in December 2013 from a year earlier. Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged much of the Jersey shoreline in October 2012, could be partly to blame for the areas’ particularly elevated unemployment rate in 2012, said Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at CohnReznick, an accounting and advisory firm.
The overall decline also is likely because so many people in New Jersey have dropped out of the labor force. Some 63.9% of people in the state were working or looking for work in December 2013, down from 66.4% at the start of the year. That 2.5 percentage point drop in what is called the labor force participation rate compares to just a 0.8 point drop in the national rate. (Portlock/Wall Street Journal)
