Meeting about Job Growth

This Friday March 4, 2011 Sabre88 met with Lt. Governor Kim Guardino’s office to discuss job creation and economic development in New Jersey. The discussion was fruitful with an action plan to address policy issues which would facilitate job growth through the private sector. The meeting hosted by Liz MacKay, Jim Leonard, the Governor’s Senior Policy Advisor and Matt McDermott the Department of Labor Chief of Staff was held in the Lt. Governor’s conference room and was attended by other leading members of the business community.

 

During the meeting Sabre88 presented information detailing the successes and failures it faced in attracting business opportunities within the state and why there were many more opportunities in neighboring states for small businesses. Sabre88 detailed the manner in which the State of New Jersey constituents are served by New York and Pennsylvania based regional headquarters and the impact on the local potential workforce having to travel out of the state to its neighbors. The impact on a federal government contractor is that any contracts could be better served by utilizing a labor pool in those states as opposed to one in New Jersey.

 

Also discussed was the fact that policy considerations need to be reviewed with regard to how the Economic Development Agency of New Jersey addresses proposals for potential job creation. Often business owners criticize the agency for assisting them after all necessary assistance has already been received. During the conversation it was expressed that the EDA could review proposals which scale job creation in a different manner and create more job growth in the long term as opposed to trying to achieve a goal of creating a fixed number of jobs by a time certain. Please see this concept of slow and steady job growth for the long term expressed on Sunday Morning where Anthony Mason spoke with economist Lakshman Achuthan of the Economic Cycle Research Institute on the United States’ unemployment rate and the chances of a faster economic recovery (Job Growth Clip).