A summary is below. More details are available on our State Employment Page.

January 22, 2019

Summary

• New Jersey lost 2,600 jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4 percent in December according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

• Over the past twelve months, New Jersey added 61,900 jobs and the unemployment rate fell by 0.7 percentage point from 4.7 percent.

• In December, New Jersey's private sector lost 2,300 jobs and over the past twelve months, it created 61,900 jobs.

• The number of unemployed New Jerseyans fell by 517 in December, and over the past year, 22,772 New Jerseyans found jobs.

• New Jersey’s labor force participation rate remains unchanged from 62.4 percent in December.  Since last year, the labor force participation rate fell 0.5 percentage point.

• The national unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point to 3.9 percent in December.  State employment and unemployment data for January is scheduled for release on March 11, 2019.  The national employment situation report for January will be released on Friday, February 1, 2019.