Official Site of The State of New JerseyNJ Adds Jobs in September; Unemployment Rate Rises
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2023
TRENTON – A mixed labor market picture emerged in September, with New Jersey adding 7,700 nonfarm jobs while seeing the unemployment rate inch higher, to 4.4 percent, according to preliminary estimates produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Total nonfarm employment reached a seasonally adjusted level of 4,347,400 in September, with the private sector adding 6,200 out of 7,700 new jobs. However, the state’s unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points.
August payroll figures have been adjusted to reflect a job growth of 9,800, down from the previously reported 12,300. The unemployment rate for the month remained steady at 4.2 percent.
In September, gains in the private sector were in education and health services (+7,600), other services (+1,100), and manufacturing (+900). Construction (-1,600), professional and business services (-800), information (-800), and financial activities (-200) recorded losses, while leisure and hospitality and trade, transportation, and utilities recorded no change for the month. The public sector recorded a seasonally adjusted gain of 1,500 jobs.
Over the past 12 months, New Jersey has added 65,000 nonfarm jobs. These gains were distributed across several industries, with seven out of nine private sector industries recording a year-over-year gain, September 2022 to September 2023. Those industries are education and health services (+52,000), leisure and hospitality (+10,800), other services (+4,200), trade, transportation, and utilities (+2,700), manufacturing (+1,700), construction (+700), and information (+300). Losses were recorded in professional and business services (-16,100) and financial activities (-2,800). Year-over-year, the state’s public sector recorded an increase of 11,400 jobs.
Preliminary estimates for October will be released on November 16, 2023.
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 approximately 4,000 business establishments conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 the BLS. In addition, these estimates are benchmarked (revised) annually based on actual counts from New Jersey’s Unemployment Compensation Law administrative records and more complete data from all New Jersey employers.
Effective with the release of January 2018 estimates, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program has converted to concurrent seasonal adjustment, which uses all available estimates, including those for the current month, in developing seasonal factors. Previously, the CES program developed seasonal factors once a year during the annual benchmark process. For more information on concurrent seasonal adjustment in the CES State and Area program, see https://www.bls.gov/sae/seasonal-adjustment/.
