The Bureau of Labor Statistics released updated data showing that New Jersey’s job market performed better than initially reported over the last two years. The update comes from the bureau’s benchmark revisions process, an annual review and adjustment of previously released employment data at the state and metropolitan levels. The updated data reflects two-year job gains for the Garden State of 395,300 — 34,000 more jobs than originally estimated. 

The information indicates that New Jersey’s economy recovered from the pandemic months earlier than first reported; the payroll gain was fully complete in April 2022, rather than August.

As for the state’s unemployment rate, that has also been revised. According to BLS, the average annual unemployment rate was 3.7% for 2022, a decline from 6.6% in 2021, and just one-tenth of a percentage point above the 2022 national rate of 3.6%.