Apr-14-11 Jobs Grow by Another 4,600 in March; Unemployment Rate at 9.3 Percent
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By resuming their job search, these "discouraged workers" can temporarily cause the unemployment rate to rise even as jobs are increasing during the early stages of an economic recovery. The number of employed Garden State residents grew for the second consecutive month, as new jobs increased by 18,300 between January and March.
"The continuing gains in private sector jobs show that hiring by New Jersey firms is starting to develop some traction. This is consistent with the improved national labor market numbers, and more particularly indications of some brightening locally. The pickup in hiring is consistent with the recent marked improvement in income earned by New Jerseyans; this is starting to feed through to higher spending and boost the demand for workers," said Charles Steindel, Chief Economist for the New Jersey Department of Treasury.
Preliminary estimates indicate that total nonfarm wage and salary employment in New Jersey increased by 4,600 jobs in March alone, as measured by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) through its monthly employer survey. The majority of the gains were recorded at private sector businesses which added 3,600 jobs over the month with four of ten industry supersectors recording job gains.
Based on more complete reporting from employers, previously released February estimates show a revised over-the-month (January - February) gain of 13,700 jobs. Preliminary estimates had indicated an over-the-month gain of 7,500 jobs.
In March, the majority of job growth occurred in the professional and business services industry supersector (+8,900). The gain in professional and business services was due to hiring in two key industry components:professional, scientific and technical services which added 3,300 jobs and administrative support/waste management and remediation which was up by 5,700. Smaller gains were recorded in other services (+600), information (+400), and mining and logging (+100).
Industries that recorded job loss included manufacturing (-2,800), education and health services (-1,300), trade, transportation and utilities (-1,200), leisure and hospitality (-800) and construction (-300). In manufacturing the loss was mostly in the nondurable goods component (-2,200) while contraction in the retail trade segment (-2,000) was responsible for the loss in trade, transportation and utilities. Employment gains in the health services (+600) segment of education and health services were overshadowed by a loss in the education services (-1,900) segment.
Public sector employment in March was higher by 1,000 as gains in local government (+1,600) outpaced a 600 drop in state employment. Local government includes counties, municipalities and local school boards.Federal employment was unchanged over the month.
Over the month, the unadjusted workweek for production workers increased by 0.2 hours to 40.1 hours, average hourly earnings decreased by $0.11 to $19.06 and weekly earnings fell by $0.57 to $764.31. Compared to March of last year, the unadjusted workweek was lower by 0.2 hours, average hourly earnings increased by $0.20 and weekly earnings were higher by $4.25.
Press release tables Note: Monthly employment estimates for New Jersey and its metropolitan areas historically have been developed by labor market analysts of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development through a cooperative agreement with the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The estimates were based on a monthly survey of New Jersey businesses combined with analysts’ input and knowledge of New Jersey’s local economies. The process is changing and beginning with this release, (March 2011 data) the responsibility for developing monthly estimates for New Jersey, and for all other states, is solely the responsibility of the BLS. The process for developing these estimates will rely less on local economic knowledge as input in the estimation process and may result in greater monthly volatility for industry employment numbers, particularly for New Jersey’s smaller metropolitan areas.
More detailed information on the changes to procedures for producing CES state estimates is available on the BLS Web site at http://www.bls.gov/sae/cesprocs.htm.
Technical Notes: Estimates of industry employment and unemployment levels are arrived at through the use of two different monthly surveys.
Industry employment data are derived through the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, a monthly survey of business establishments conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the US Department of Labor, which provides estimates of employment, hours, and earnings data broken down by industry for the nation as a whole, all states, and most major metropolitan areas (often referred to as the “establishment” survey).
Resident employment and unemployment data are mainly derived from the New Jersey portion of the national Current Population Survey (CPS), a household survey conducted each month by the US Census Bureau under contract with BLS, which provides input to the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program (often referred to as the “household” survey).
Both industry and household estimates are revised each month based on additional information from updated survey reports compiled by BLS. In addition, these estimates are benchmarked (revised) annually based on actual counts from New Jersey’s Unemployment Compensation Law administrative records and other data.
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