New Jersey loses jobs in October as it prepares for bond sale
Source: Reuters
New Jersey loses jobs in October as it prepares for bond sale
BY HILARY RUSS
Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:34pm EST
(Reuters) - New Jersey's economy showed more cracks on Thursday as the U.S. state with the second-lowest credit rating in the country reported 4,500 jobs lost in October and an upward tick in its unemployment rate.
The latest bad news broke a streak of much-needed labor market improvement that had been slow but steady for the Garden State, and it came in advance of a planned $525 million state borrowing on Dec. 3.
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The state has now recovered only 48 percent of the jobs it lost during the 2007-2009 recession, far less than New York and nationwide, according to the left-leaning research group New Jersey Policy Perspective.
Wall Street credit rating agencies have downgraded the state eight times because of its poor economic recovery and large public pension shortfalls. Governor Chris Christie, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, took controversial actions - not putting the money into the pension system that the state was supposed to contribute - in the middle of a budget crunch this year.
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Read more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/20/us-usa-new-jersey-employment-idUSKCN0J42AO20141120