Introduction
New Jersey is a state in America that boarders New York and Philadelphia. Economic situation of New Jersey is essential to world’s economy. Labor force is integral to economic situation of New Jersey. In this regard, employment and levels of unemployment should be monitored so as to ensure that economy is stable.
The essay will focus on outlining trends of labor force in New Jersey over the last one year. Focus will be on changes recorded from October 2012 to October 2013, in relation to labor force. Factors that affect participation rate in labor will be highlighted. Age and ethnicity will be considered in process of comprehending trends of labor force in New Jersey. A comprehensive summary of findings will be made, so as to provide a valid conclusion on the situation of labor force in New Jersey.
Geographically, New Jersey is the fourth smallest but eleventh state in terms of population size. Economically, it is third richest state in America. According to population estimates by United States Census Bureau in 2012, New Jersey had 8,864,590 residents.
Population of the state had increased by 0.8% from estimates done in 2010. In 2010, the state had 8,791,894 residents. Ethnic categories in New Jersey comprise of 68.6% White Americans, 13.7% African Americans, 0.3% Native Americans, 8.3% Asian Americans, 6.4% other races and 2.7% Multiracial Americans. Latinos constitute 17.7% of the population, while Non-Hispanic Whites are 58.9% of the population.
According to US Bureau of Labor Statics, there has been a rise of 204,000 people in nonfarm employment in October, 2013. The unemployment rate is at 7.3%. There has been a notable increment of employment in trade, technical services, health, manufacturing, and hospitality sectors.
Out of the total population11.3 million people living in New Jersey were unemployed by October 2013. There was an increase in number of temporal layoffs, as evidenced by an alarming figure of 448,000 people. Teenagers were the most affected by unemployment as they constituted 22.2% of unemployed population. Adult men accounted for 7% of unemployed population while women constituted 6.4%.
Whites accounted for 6.3% of unemployed population while Hispanics constituted 6.8%. 13.1% of those who were unemployed were Blacks. Asians accounted for 5.2% of the unemployed population in New Jersey. More Whites are in white collar jobs, while most Blacks engage in manual jobs. Notably, statistics have changed slightly over the past twelve months.
Long term unemployment that is defined as job lasting for less than 27 weeks, increased to 4.1 million people in New Jersey. Long term unemployed residents constituted 36.1% of total unemployment levels. There has been a decrease of 954,000 people who are unemployed in the state over the past 12 months.
There has been a decrease in labor force of civilians over the past year, as evidenced by a decrease of 720,000 in October 2013. The decrease is interpreted as a 0.4% decline from month of September. There has been a decline in overall employment of 735,000 residents of New Jersey between September and October. Percentage of employment decline from September to October is 0.3%. The decline was attributed to a drop in employment in federal government sector.
The level of part time employment slightly increased to 8.1 million in October. Part time workers were those who were unable to find full time jobs or had tight schedules and had to engage in economic generating activities. Labor force accounted for 2.3 million marginal attachments that had decreased from 2.4 million in the past 12 months.
Those who were marginally attached could not be considered as unemployed. The decline in those marginally attached can be attributed to frustrations and discouragements. There was an increase in number of people who had been discouraged to find jobs over the year, since October recorded a figure of 815,000 people who never sought for jobs.
There has been a notable increase of nonfarm employment over the past twelve months. Every month accounted for 190,000 employment growth. Despite the employment increase in October, government employment assumed a downward trend. Hospitality industry employed 53,000 people in October 2013.
Twelve months recorded uniform growth of 29,000 jobs in food industry. Retail trade employment growth can be averaged at 31,000 jobs over the past twelve months. However in October, the industry recorded an increment of 44,000 jobs.
The unemployment rates have been stagnant over the past twelve months. Despite the fact that there are high levels of unemployment, there is a difference in the percentage constituted by different ethnic groups. The trend of 2013 seems to be a continuity of year 2012 that was characterized by high unemployment rates. Over the past one year unemployment population has reduced from 7.9% to 7.3% in New Jersey. There has been an increment of people who are not in labor force from 88,507 in October 2012 to 91,541 in October 2013.
Total number of residents in New Jersey who want a job has decreased from 6,584 in October 2012 to 6,162 in October 2013. Participation rate has decreased over the year as evidenced by 68.8% in October 2012 and 62.8% in October 2013. The percentage of those employed has also reduced as evidenced by 58.7% in October 2012 and 58.3% in October 2013. There has been a rise in the number of those employed from 143,328 in October 2012 to 143,568 in October 2013 (Shierholz 18).
There has been a decline in participation rate of men aged between 16 and 19 years, as evidenced by 70.2% in October 2012 and 69.2% in October 2013. The number of those who are unemployed has decreased, as evidenced by 8% in October 2012 and 7.6% in October 2013.
There have been insignificant changes in those who are employed over the year as evidenced by 76,027 in 0ctober 2012 and 76,074 in October 2013. The participation rate of men who are aged above 20 years has also decreased from 73% in October 2012 to 71.9% in October 2013. There has been insignificant change in this category of men who are employed over the past twelve months. Unemployment rate has dropped from 7.9% in October 2012 to 7.3% in October 2013.
Participation rate of women aged between 16 and 19 years has dropped from 57.7% in October 2012 to 56. 9% in October 2013. Unemployment ratio reduced from 53.3% in October 2012 to 53% in October 2013.
Unemployment rates of this category of women have dropped from 7.7% in October 2012 to 6.9% in October 2013. Participation rates of women who were above 20 years have declined from 59.4% in October 2012 to 58.5% in October 2013. Unemployment rate of these women have declined from 7.2 % in October 2012 to 6.4% in October 2013.
There has been a decline of unemployment in non agricultural sector as evidenced by 7.5% in October 2012 and 7% in October 2013. The government sector has recorded increased unemployment levels over the last twelve months, as evidenced by 4.2% in October 2012 and 4.4% in October 2013. Similarly, agriculture sector has also recorded an increase in number of unemployed people as evidenced by 9.5% in October 2012 and 10.7% in October 2013.
Unemployment in white collar jobs has decreased over the years, as evidenced by 8.1% in October 2012 and 7.5% in October 2013. Despite the fact that percentages may indicate that white collar sector is reducing the unemployment levels more than manual jobs, actual figure of unemployment is highest in white collar jobs. For instance, unemployment of white collar jobs is at 1,208 while that in agricultural sector is at 163 (Bivens and Fieldhouse 15).
Summary
From above findings, there have been slight changes in the situation of labor force in New Jersey. Men are the most significant contributors to labor force in New Jersey. Despite the fact that there is a difference between participation rate of men aged between 16 and 19 years and those above 20 years, they collectively participate more in labor force than women.
Variance between men and women in contribution to labor can be attributed to social as well as biological factors. For instance, women are expected to engage in many activities that are defined by the society, while men engage in income generating activities holistically. There is a variance between the participation rate of teens and adults.
Despite the gender, adults participate more in labor force than teenagers. Low participation from teenagers can be attributed to the fact that most employers prefer experienced individuals to inexperienced ones. In this regard, adults have more work experience than teenagers hence participate more in labor market. High unemployment rates of Black Americans can be attributed to social structures like racism that render the race vulnerable to exploitation and poor living conditions, including unemployment.
Whites constitute lowest percentage of unemployment in New Jersey. Notably, most employees in white collar jobs are Whites. There are more Blacks in manual jobs than Whites and Asians. Percentage of Whites who are unemployed is higher than unemployed Whites. It should be noted that, Whites are the majority and representation of a percentage figure does not mean that there are more Asians employed than Whites (Algernon 12).
Conclusion
Labor is integral to economic situation of any region. Policies should focus on reducing levels of unemployment as much as possible, so as to maximize on the economic growth. Unemployment trends in New Jersey have not changed significantly over the past twelve months.
Despite the fact that high unemployment levels can be attributed to recession in 2009, necessary strategies should be adopted so as to remedy the situation. Unemployment in New Jersey assumes ethnic and age patterns. Generally, Whites, Latinos, and Blacks are still in employment crises in New Jersey.
Focus should be on creation of more jobs and narrowing the gap between races. Collective approach in solving issue of unemployment is likely to increase levels of employment even more. More specific solutions that reduce percentage of unemployment of Blacks and Latinos should also be adopted. The effects of unemployment are devastating to victims and concerned region as well. Despite the fact that New Jersey has a stable economy, high unemployment is also evident.
Works Cited
Algernon, Austin. “Infrastructure Investments and Latino and African American Job Creation.” Economic Policy Institute Issue Brief. 352.1 (2013): 20-52.
Bivens, Josh, and Andrew Fieldhouse. “When and What Kind of Deficit Reduction Matters Most: The Danger of Aggressive 10-year Deficit Targets in the Current Budget Debate.” Working Economics. 3.2 (2013): 5-20. Web.
Shierholz, Heidi. “Status Quo Is Not Good Enough.” Economic Policy Institute Economic Indicators. 16.1 (2013): 10-20. Web.