By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
New Jersey’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.5% in August 2013, Save Jerseyans, marking the first time it’s been that low since March 2009, ten months before Chris Christie assumed office.
Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) seized the opportunity to boost his governor as well as the newly-enacted Economic Opportunity Act:
“It is encouraging that our unemployment rate continues to steadily improve. Over the last three years, Governor Christie’s sound fiscal policies have created over 142,000 private-sector jobs, reversing the negative trend of the previous eight years when we lost nearly 190,000 jobs. I am confident that the bipartisan Economic Opportunity Act legislation signed yesterday by the governor will continue to help grow our economy and create jobs.”
To be fair, it’s not all sunshine and roses. The unemployment rate is dropping nationwide and here in New Jersey, at least in part, owing to the fact that many former workers have simply given up and stopped filing unemployment claims (although New York’s ticked higher). New Jersey’s unemployment rate remains one of the country’s highest. Our economy needs real tax relief/reform to get off its back; don’t plan on that happening until the legislature changes hands… hopefully sometime before I die.
