New Jersey Economy Is Choking , Says Two Experts

The Star-Ledger reports:

Two Rutgers University economists plan to issue a report today stating New Jersey has entered an alarming economic decline whose severity is masked by the very affluence that is slowly slipping away.

"New Jersey now faces its most uncertain economic future since the Great Depression," James Hughes and Joseph Seneca write in their 20-page report.


Hughes said he loaded the rhetorical dice in hopes of shaking up his audience.

With New Jersey's work force 4million strong and growing, and with unemployment relatively low, Hughes said he isn't predicting a recurrence of the Depression's bread-line nightmare. The threat, he said, lurks in the quality of the jobs that are keeping New Jerseyans busy, and the impact of those jobs on long-term prosperity for the state.

Between 2000 and 2005, New Jersey's economy created thousands of relatively low-paying service jobs and government jobs, while private-sector jobs declined. New Jersey also lost many high-paid technology, knowledge and manufacturing jobs during that period, while such jobs were growing in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Florida.

High taxes,unions,and the Mob make New Jersey not the place to do business.Few places can say they have less private sector jobs than in the year 2000.But,few places are New Jersey.