d-e-p-r-e-s-s-i-o-n here we come, stock-up with food when you can and ebay any unneccesary crap.

Jobless ranks swell as year draws to a close

by Judy Peet/The Star-Ledger
Tuesday December 30, 2008, 10:37 PM

One year into the recession, with no end in sight, county unemployment offices have become familiar stomping ground for the 31,800 New Jerseyans who lost their jobs since last January.

They stream in daily, hoping for a job lead or trying to find out what happened to their checks. Despite massive attempts to overhaul the system, the glitches in unemployment claims are approaching legend and most economists think things are only going to get worse before they get better.

"So far, New Jersey has not been as hard-hit by the recession as other states that were more bloated. Unfortunately, we still have time to catch up," said James Hughes, dean of the Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, referring to the 2.1 million people who were thrown out of work nationwide in the past 12 months. "There's very little positive I can say about the job outlook in the upcoming months."

Monte Vacchiano and his daughter Vanessa, 3, wait for his number to be called for assistance at the unemployment office in Neptune.

By now, almost everyone has lost a job or knows someone who has. Housing, banking and financial markets are in free fall. Pharmaceutical companies are cutting back. Government is retrenching. Retailers are in a panic and Hughes predicted 2009 "could be the economic year from hell."

Nationwide, the end of the year was, indeed, dismal for most states. The exceptions were Washington, where the end of an aerospace worker strike resulted in 17,400 back on the job and oil producing states: Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska.

In Michigan and Rhode Island, unemployment rates nudged 10 percent, making New Jersey's 6 percent jobless in November pale in comparison. For those interested in relocating, Wyoming posted the lowest jobless rate of 3.2 percent and actually gained 8,200 jobs in 2008 and Texas ended the year up a whopping 221,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The outlook isn't totally gloomy. A mid-December report issued by the state Department of Labor noted that although the northern portion of the state lagged behind other regions in this year, 5,200 new jobs were created in educational and health services.

One part of the state actually recorded job growth this year, according to the report. The Camden region, bolstered by expansion of hospitals and service industries, actually added 2,200 jobs for record 541,000.

One possible gleam of light for New Jersey may be the inflow of financial jobs from pricier cities such as New York and Philadelphia, Hughes said.

"When things were fat, nobody minded paying huge rents to stay in New York," he said. "But when it's time to purge the excess, Jersey City will start looking better and better, but it won't be soon."