New Jersey Trying to Hold Onto Jobs

NEWARK-As high-tech jobs are going to less expensive states like North Carolina and Massachusetts, the State of New Jersey is looking to both bring in new jobs and keep the existing ones. “We are not growing our innovation jobs like we need to,” said Caren Franzini, CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, speaking at a regional economic outlook conference hosted by the Newark Regional Business Partnership here yesterday.

One program aimed at reversing the trend, according to Franzini, is a re-packaged Edison Innovation Fund, which Gov. Jon Corzine introduced last month. Backed by $150 million of state money, it’s looking to leverage $350 million in private capital to keep New Jersey in the forefront for technical and pharmaceutical jobs. It’s a technology-focused program similar to Business Employment Incentive Program, one of New Jersey’s successes in that area. The re-packaging involved switching the program’s funding from bonds, which will be paid in the future, to a more fiscally sound pay-as-you-go system, a change that had been recommended for years.

Related to the Edison Innovation Fund, Corzine makes personal calls to CEOs of New Jersey businesses to keep them in-state, Franzini explained. Similarly, he calls outside CEOs in an effort to get them to bring their business in-state.