Whether economic times are good or bad, Save Jerseyans, New Jersey always seems to lag the national average.
In the first quarter of 2022, New Jersey personal income rose at a 4.1% annual rate as opposed to the 4.8% national rate.
The Garden State also underperformed its neighbors. Over the same three month period, Pennsylvania’s incomes increased at 5.5% rate, New York ticked up to 4.6%, and even Delaware posted a 7.4% improvement. It seems to be a pattern: last quarter, New Jersey incomes dropped at a 0.4% rate even as the nation as a whole realize a 3.6% jump.
The results fly in the face of Governor Murphy’s pledge to build a “fairer and stronger” New Jersey.
“A portion of our weakness in the first quarter relates to the fade-out of COVID aid. This factor, for reasons that are not clear, was a larger drag on personal income in New Jersey than in many other states,” explained Dr. Charles Steindel, former Chief Economist of the New Jersey Treasury, in an analysis for the Garden State Initiative. “Also, a marked step-up in earnings in durable goods manufacturing was less important here than elsewhere, since durable goods production is now a small part of New Jersey’s economy. Finally, property income (dividends, rents, and interest) is calculated to have grown more slowly in New Jersey than in the nation as a whole, though it should be realized that quarterly state estimates of this type of income are likely subject to a large margin of error.”
Here’s the map:
