The New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s next public Board Meeting will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 36 West State St., Trenton, NJ 08625. A copy of the proposed agenda can be found prior to the meeting at www.njeda.gov/Board. Following the Board Meeting, minutes and the full agenda will also be available at www.njeda.gov/Board.
By Eliot Caroom/Star-Ledger
June 21, 2012
Newark’s Workforce Investment Board will get $3 million in federal funding to implement a first-of-its-kind data program measuring the effectiveness of its job training and placement services, officals said today.
“I think Newark is going to offer a model we’re going to replicate around the United States,” said Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth Harris in remarks at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. “It’s a trial. As far as I know, it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the country.”
The money will be spent on a computer program and analysts to examine the results of different job training initiatives.
By Hugh R. Morley/The Record
June 16, 2012
* Governor says rising employment figures are proof of state’s ‘comeback.’
New Jersey added more jobs in May than all but two other states, yet had the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the nation, according to figures released Friday.
The state’s addition of 17,600 jobs, New Jersey’s largest monthly rise in seven years, was bigger than every state but California, which gained 33,900, and Ohio, which added 19,600, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
The state jobless rate, which rose to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent in April, was higher than all states except North Carolina, California, Rhode Island and Nevada, which had a rate of 11.6 percent — the highest in the nation, bureau figures show. The national rate is 8.2 percent.
The increase in New Jersey’s employment figures, released Thursday, was hailed by Governor Christie as a sign his economic and job-creating policies are working, and the state “comeback” that he promotes is on track.
By Katie Eder/NJBIZ
June 15, 2012
After pitching the economic impact of business incubation to legislators across the state, the New Jersey Business Incubation Network has opened its 13th incubator at Warren County Community College’s Small Business Growth Center, in Phillipsburg, and sparked interest in the state’s other outlying counties to operate more.
According to NJBIN President Suzanne Zammit, while the network’s incubators usually focus on high-tech startup companies, WCCC will host a mixed-use incubator for all types of business ventures in Warren County, where opportunities for entrepreneurs to grow their companies were not previously offered. The 7,500-square-foot center includes office space available for lease at below-market rates, small and large conference and training rooms, shared Internet connection, audio and visual equipment, and in-house business experts.
To help the WCCC incubator grow in its early stages, NJBIN will bring in sponsors, local business experts and angel investors to implement educational programming about the resources available to startup companies.
A meeting of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority has been scheduled for June 20, 2012 at 7:00 pm at the Tinton Falls Municipal Building, 556 Tinton Avenue, Tinton Falls, NJ. Formal action may be taken at this meeting. A copy of the proposed agenda can be found 48 hours prior to the meeting at the websites of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority: www.nj.gov/fmera, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority: www.njeda.gov.
By Mary Diduch/The Record
June 12, 2012
As a second-grader, James Gammon, 8, was receiving a lot of math homework.
Fortunately for him, his father had joined the growing trend of North Jersey entrepreneurs breaking into the app business. Rod Gammon launched a small software company in 2005, Limitless Horizons LLC, that soon picked up creating educational apps.
That’s when Math in a Minute, an application designed to help youngsters practice basic math skills, was born. After about a year on the market, the 99-cent app has thousands of downloads from international users who use it every week, and now the West Milford-based Gammons are working to launch their next app in September — a storytelling game inspired by James’ sister, 5-year-old Petra.
By Jared Kaltwasser/NJBIZ
June 11, 2012
The government’s broadest measure of unemployment and under-employment shows the labor situation in New Jersey is about average.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Monday reported 16 percent of the state’s workers were “underutilized” in 2011. That statistic includes the 9.4 percent of New Jerseyans considered unemployed in 2011, as well as those working part-time instead of full-time, due to the economy; and those who were unemployed and open to work, but weren’t actively seeking it.
New Jersey’s 16-percent underutilization rate — referred to as the U-6 rate by the government — was up slightly from 2010 (15.7 percent) and in line with the national figure of 15.9 percent.
By Chris Bishop/Burlington County Times
June 6, 2012
Claudia B. Hawkins is a fairly new businesswoman.
So any knowledge she can gain about what resources are available from state government is a plus, said the Evesham resident and owner of Ethics Training and Consulting.
Hawkins was impressed with the New Jersey Resources for Business Growth hosted by the Burlington County Chamber of Commerce and held at the Mount Laurel campus of Burlington County College off Route 38 on Tuesday night.
“I liked the format, because there was time to go around and talk to the departments,” said Hawkins, a retired IRS agent.
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s next public Board Meeting will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at Rutgers University, Berson Boardroom @ The Center for Law and Justice (123 Washington St., 2nd Floor, Newark, NJ). A copy of the proposed agenda can be found prior to the meeting at www.njeda.gov/Board. Following the Board Meeting, minutes and the full agenda will also be available at www.njeda.gov/Board.
By Katie Eder/NJBIZ
June 5, 2012
Top executives in New Jersey say their businesses and the state economy are becoming more stable, but a majority report plummeting sales volumes are affecting job creation, according to a quarterly survey of confidence among CEOs and chief financial officers.
“Everyone knows someone who is unemployed,” said Ren Cicalese, managing shareholder of Alloy, Silverstein, Shapiro, Adams, Mulford, Cicalese, Wilson & Co., which conducted the survey, released Thursday. “But executives are worried about their sales declining, so they’re holding positions more conservatively. We had a brief glimpse at optimism earlier in the year, but the many negative reports have belittled it.”
The number of executives who indicated the local economy was improving slipped from 20 percent in the first quarter of 2012 to 9 percent in the second quarter, while those who felt their businesses were improving fell from 30 percent to 16 percent. Still, 62 percent of the 82 executives surveyed believe their companies are currently stable, though 51 percent indicated they have no plans to hire in the next six months.