Analysis: New Jersey’s personal income growth lags neighboring states, national average
(The Center Square) – New Jersey’s personal income in the first quarter grew at a seemingly impressive 49.5% annual rate, but it lags the rates of neighboring states and the national average, according to a new analysis.
“Both the growth rate and the rankings must be placed in context,” according to an analysis by Charles Steindel, New Jersey’s former chief economist and resident scholar at Ramapo College’s Anisfield School of Business. “The spectacular raw growth was, of course, overwhelmingly due to the flood of federal money distributed in the first quarter.”
New Jersey ranked No. 45 in the country and below the national rate of 59.7%. The state trailed Pennsylvania (68%), Delaware (61.7%) and New York (51.9%), Steindel said in his analysis of a Bureau of Economic Analysis report on behalf of the Garden State Initiative (GSI).
“A more solid read on our performance comes from the critical ‘net earnings’ component of personal income,” Steindel said. “That consists of wages and benefits plus the income of unincorporated businesses.
“Our growth rate was 5.7%, which was a bit below the national figure of 6.1% and, perhaps more importantly, the lowest rate in the Northeast outside of DC,” Steindel added. “On balance, the numbers certainly show that we are recovering, but not in line with some of our peers.”
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