DUDE, WHERE'S JERSEY'S JOBS? NJ Unemployment Stands A Full 2 Points Behind National Average

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, October 18th, 2012


(NEW JERSEY) – New Jersey's latest unemployment numbers show the state continuing to lag the national average by a full two percentage points. While America's unemployment dipped below 8% to hit 7.8% in September, New Jersey's unemployment stands at 9.8% - just a breath away from double digits.

Things simply aren't getting better in New Jersey in any meaningful way on the jobs front on Governor Chris Christie's watch. Clearly, creating jobs for New Jersey residents isn't a priority for Christie. Rather than focusing on the job here at home, he's travelled all across the country sowing seeds for his own future. Since Labor Day alone, Christie's been stumping in such far flung-states as Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Montana, Massachusetts, Washington, Ohio, North Dakota, Michigan, Missouri, and Indiana.

Ironically, just yesterday, Christie's itinerary in Indiana included a visit to a distribution center for Express Scripts - a pharmaceutical benefits company whose merger with Medco Health earlier this year cost New Jersey 258 jobs in Franklin Lakes, Montvale and Fair Lawn.

For nearly three years, Christie has had his way… and the Christie way is clearly not working. Christie has no jobs plan – aside from laying off workers in the public sector and cancelling projects like the bi-partisan supported ARC Tunnel that would have created jobs. He handed tax breaks to multi-millionaires, but the “job creators” simply are not creating jobs in Christie's New Jersey. His policies have done little to nothing to avert plant and office closings. Sadly, New Jersey ranks a dismal 47th in jobs - and that was before these latest numbers were released.

Since Governor Chris Christie took office, New Jersey has consistently trailed the rest of the nation when it comes to jobs. And the trend lines are only getting worse.

If only Christie cared as much about stemming job loss at home as he did promoting his own future job and personal agenda out-of-state, perhaps New Jersey wouldn't be staring at near-double-digit unemployment. Maybe that's something for Christie to ponder as he heads to Pennsylvania and Connecticut over the next few days.

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