The New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development is out with the first jobs report of 2025.

“New Jersey’s labor market was mixed in January,” said Charles Steindel, former chief economist of the State of New Jersey, who analyzed the repot for the thinktank Garden State Initiative.

In January, total jobs decreased by 6,100, led by 12,000 jobs shed in the public sector that mainly came at the state level (-10,300). In the private sector, jobs rose by 5,900. Most private sectors reported gains, paced by professional and business services (+3,800) and private education and health services (+1,300).

“The number of jobs in the state is estimated to have fallen by 6,100. However, this includes an odd 12,000 drop in government employment (this cannot be the result of any DOGE activity; federal employment in the state is not large enough for that sort of swing to be at all likely, and, more concretely, the data was collected before the change in administration),” Steindel explained.

“The state’s unemployment rate remained at 4.6% for the eighth straight month (this is not a record for months with no change: New Jersey’s unemployment rate was 9.5% from July 2010 through March 2011),” Steindel continued. “January saw declines of around 4,400 in both the labor force and the number of residents at work.”

2024 revisions

The jobs report also included 2024 employment revisions.

“Revised data are now available for the past few years. As expected, the new numbers show higher levels for both the labor force and employed residents,” said Steindel. “The new numbers for December 2024 are more than 70,000 higher for both series. The revisions generally reduced unemployment rates for 2023 and 2024 – the sharp peak of 4.8% is no longer there. New Jersey’s unemployment rate remains higher than the nation’s – but the gap now looks fairly modest.”

“As for the job count, on balance revisions were small (the new count for December is less than 3,000 smaller than the initial estimate),” said Steindel. “There was a marked upward revision to the November-December increase, which now stands at 17,600, compared to the initial 7,200.”

The full jobs report, which was released March 13, is available here.

The February jobs report comes out March 27.