Forecast Sees 50,000 New Jobs a Year

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ-For those speculating about when the economy would start creating enough jobs to fill some of the vacant office space in New Jersey, the Rutgers Economic Advisory Service has issued a forecast that the state will add an average of 50,000 jobs a year through 2010. That translates into an average annual growth rate of 1.2%, and would put the state’s non-agricultural workforce past the 4.3 million mark by the end of the decade.

“New Jersey’s employment picture strengthened rapidly during the past several months, resulting in the creation of 65,500 jobs in the last year,” says Nancy H. Mantell, director of R/ECON, speaking at a conference yesterday at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

“In May, the state’s job total of 4,035,400 finally surpassed the peak reached at the end of the last business cycle in December 2000,” she continues.