New Jersey’s Unemployed Can Find Better Job Markets as Close as Connecticut and Delaware
Senator Joe Kyrillos, a member of the Senate Economic Growth Committee, said that, contrary to Governor Corzine’s recently videotaped comments, New Jersey residents don’t have to move all the way to Midwest farm states like North Dakota to find work. August figures show every neighboring state had an unemployment rate lower than New Jersey’s 9.7 percent, a 33-year record. Unemployment was 8.1 percent in Delaware and Connecticut, 8.6 percent in Pennsylvania, 9 percent in New York and 9.1 percent in Massachusetts.
“The governor said that only farm states like North Dakota are experiencing low unemployment,” Senator Kyrillos said. “Our neighbors Connecticut and Massachusetts not only have less farm land than New Jersey, they have far lower unemployment.”
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, about 10 percent of the land in Massachusetts was used for farming in 2007. In Connecticut, it was 13 percent. In New Jersey, about 16 percent of state’s land is still used as farmland. “The farms equal prosperity argument is pretty weak, especially since the jobless stats count only non-farm employment,” Kyrillos said. Kyrillos pointed out that earlier this year, when Governor Corzine wanted to make excuses for his economic record, he compared New Jersey’s jobless rate to the then-higher national average. In August, the state rate climbed to the national average, so the governor said Tuesday the only reasonable comparison now is with New York City.
“Governor Corzine may never run out of locations where the economy is worse than in New Jersey, but he should just admit there is no way to make 9.7 percent unemployment look good,” Kyrillos said. “The policies of the last seven years have made us weaker than our neighbors, and the governor should stop struggling to escape responsibility.”
Unemployment rates in New Jersey and neighboring states for August are below:
New Jersey: 9.7 percent.
New York: 9.0 percent
Pennsylvania: 8.6 percent
Massachusetts: 9.1 percent
Delaware: 8.1 percent
Connecticut: 8.1 percent
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April 17, 2009
