Publications

R/ECON’s next economic forecast is slated for release in mid-summer, followed by another forecast in the fall. As we track the latest state data and national outlook, we (much like everyone else) have been closely following the news on tariffs, the Fed’s potential actions, and associated fluctuations in the financial markets. While tariffs don’t enter […]

As the New Jersey State Policy Lab (NJSPL) reaches its fourth anniversary, it is my honor to serve as the Executive Director, working with an incredible team of dedicated professionals to better understand and investigate policy issues impacting the state. The NJSPL was created as the result of a grant from the Office of the Secretary […]

A little over a year ago, we reviewed the latest data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey showing that in 2022 New Jersey had the highest median income in the country, coupled with housing costs also among the nation’s highest. Here we revisit these indicators and review the 2023 data released late last year. […]

R/ECON’s economic forecast for New Jersey as 2024 drew to a close once again shows a slowing trajectory, with annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2025 projected to slow more sharply than in the prior forecast.

In late July, the outlook for the U.S. economy appeared strong, with some observers suggesting that the Fed had indeed nailed the long-awaited soft-landing even in light of recent cooling in the labor market.

The United States Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently began publishing state-level data on the distribution of personal income across households. Similar income distribution and income inequality data has previously been available from other sources such as the IRS and U.S. Census Bureau. However, the BEA’s new approach draws on a wide variety of measures […]

R/ECON’s economic forecast for New Jersey as of June 2024 continues to show a slowing trajectory, though the decline in annual GDP growth is not as pronounced as in the prior forecast. The anticipated slowdown has also been deferred from 2024 to 2025, consistent with expectations for the nation following stronger-than-expected GDP growth at the […]

Unpredictability has been one of the defining features of New Jersey’s labor market for much of the last two years.

Governor Murphy’s recently released FY 2025 budget proposal calls for total appropriations of $55.9 billion, up $1.5 billion (2.7%) from the original FY 2024 appropriation and up $475 million (0.9%) from the FY 2024 adjusted appropriation reported with the FY 2025 proposal.

As 2024 began with yet another surprisingly strong jobs report for the U.S. (353,000 jobs added in January and the unemployment rate steady at 3.7%), and with a full year’s worth of 2023 state-level employment data now available, it’s worth briefly revisiting some of the trends discussed in our early December post on New Jersey’s employment situation.

The U.S. Census Bureau's annual state population estimates released this month show New Jersey resuming population growth after experiencing a decline of nearly 30,000 residents since the 2020 Decennial Census.

While New Jersey’s payroll employment has continued to grow this year after the rapid job gains of the post-pandemic recovery, a slower pace of growth in recent months and a sharp rise in the state’s unemployment rate, particularly over the last six months, are giving rise to some concern (see this article from NJ Spotlight […]