The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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Ridgewood NJ, nearly three in four business owners said they were challenged to find appropriate staffing in 2021, and nearly the same amount raised wages – some considerably – to help offset their workforce shortage, according to NJBIA’s 2022 Business Outlook Survey, released today.
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Ridgewood NJ, Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R-Monmouth) is calling on Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Legislature to put a hold on minimum wage increases scheduled to take place in the coming months as small businesses teeter on the brink of financial ruin due to COVID-19 and subsequent, continual restrictions:
Continue reading Financial Disaster Looms for New Jersey’s Small Businesses
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Trenton NJ, Anthony Russo, president of the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey (CIANJ). CIANJ is a statewide business advocacy group, with offices in Rochelle Park and Trenton, representing the interests of more than 900 members from virtually every business sector (manufacturing, hospitality, financial, insurance, academia, healthcare, etc.). CIANJ prides itself in being a leading advocate for a free market economy, because we firmly believe it is through a free market economy that New Jersey thrives in terms of innovation, competition and the creation of private sector jobs.
Continue reading President of the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey ,”It is time to focus on passing laws which help businesses”
N.J.’s incentives to Mercedes couldn’t offset cost of doing business
JANUARY 6, 2015, 11:21 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2015, 11:28 PM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY AND LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
New Jersey “worked tirelessly” for months to persuade Mercedes-Benz USA to stay in Montvale, the car company said Tuesday, including several meetings and calls between Governor Christie and company CEO Stephen Cannon and a last-ditch offer three days ago.
The state wielded an arsenal of incentive programs that were revamped just over a year ago to enable New Jersey to award more generous tax breaks that would counter the high cost of doing business in the state.
Yet the state’s effort fell short, rebuffed by the reality that even the heavily fortified programs – which enabled New Jersey in 2014 to award about $2 billion in breaks – couldn’t negate the high cost of doing business in the state, and the lure of Atlanta, where the company said Tuesday it will move its heaN.J.’s incentives to Mercedes couldn’t offset cost of doing business
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While critics immediately suggested that the German car giant’s departure announcement showed the redundancy of the state’s strategy of offering big-dollar tax breaks, state officials dismissed that suggestion.
Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Christie, said the governor “took a direct role in trying to keep Mercedes-Benz USA in New Jersey.”
Economist says ‘enormous’ N.J.-vs.-U.S. economic gap widening
DECEMBER 17, 2014 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* Gap between state, U.S. job gains widens, Rutgers economist says
New Jersey’s employment problems may be structural, because of factors that include the decline of key industries and the shift away from suburban corporate campuses, and are unlikely to dramatically improve even as the national economic picture brightens, Rutgers University economists said Tuesday.
The gap between the national job-creation performance and New Jersey’s is actually widening, as the national jobs market strengthens and New Jersey’s flounders, said Nancy Mantell, director of the Rutgers Economic Advisory Service, which compiles an economic forecast for the state.
Mantell’s comments, made in New Brunswick at the economic forum organized by R/ECON every six months, offered a dose of grim reality to the hopes that New Jersey’s economy would bounce back as the nation’s does.
The R/ECON predictions came as New Jersey prepares to release the employment figures for November on Thursday. The state lost 4,500 jobs in October, and the jobless rate of 6.6 percent remains above the national rate of 5.8 percent.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/slow-n-j-recovery-seen-1.1159092
New Jersey start-up funding continues to drop
APRIL 19, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY ANDREW WYRICH
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
* Nationwide flow of venture capital isn’t washing ashore here
A new report on Friday said funding for start-ups in New Jersey dropped sharply in the first quarter, falling 78 percent from the period a year ago and continuing a trend that began in the second quarter last year.
In contrast, funding for start-ups nationally reached levels not seen since 2001.
According to a MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, investors funneled $19.6 million in funding to five New Jersey companies in the first three months of this year, down from more than $80.2 million that went to eight companies in the 2013 quarter.
Two North Jersey companies were among the five that received funding. The Clifton-based software maker Caktus Inc., which designs software that tracks a person’s water intake, received seed funding. LiveU Ltd. of Hackensack, which develops technology for live broadcasting, received later-stage funding. The amount invested into both companies was not disclosed in the report.
“The $19.6 million invested is the lowest quarter in MoneyTree Report history, and the funding in New Jersey continues to trend downward in recent quarters,” Brett Harrington, a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers Emerging Companies Services, said in a statement. “Hopefully, the overall increase that has been seen nationally will positively impact New Jersey in Q2.”
Yearlong slide
The money venture capitalists invested in New Jersey-based start-ups and the number of companies that got funding have declined steadily since the second quarter of 2013. In the third quarter last year, the roughly $20 million invested in 11 companies was the lowest amount invested in New Jersey in 15 years, according to the report.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/tight-state-for-start-ups-1.999421#sthash.pQvL7Ybe.dpuf
