View full size

TRENTON — New Jersey's unemployment rate climbed to a two-year high in June, pushing the state farther above the national average even though nearly 10,000 new jobs were added, the state labor department said today.

The state’s jobless rate rose from 9.2 percent to 9.6 percent, its biggest month-to-month spike in three years. New Jersey hasn’t been this far above the national average in more than three decades. The nation’s unemployment rate for June was 8.2 percent.

Christie administration officials said what matters is that New Jersey has gained 24,300 jobs in the last two months. The state is still shaking off its post-recession hangover, they said, and in the meantime the jobless rate is climbing because people who had given up on the job market are hunting for work again.

"We have created almost as many jobs in the first six months of this year as we did in all of 2011," said Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie. "As a result, (New Jerseyans) are confidently re-entering the labor market at a level we haven’t seen in well over three years."

Howard Wial, a fellow at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, cautioned that new jobs are calculated with one set of data and unemployment with another. But taken at face value, they could be evidence that New Jersey’s recovery is revving up and the job market is approaching its full capacity.

"That can happen especially during the early stages of an economic recovery or as the recovery begins to pick up steam," Wial said.

But state Democrats said the unemployment rate has reached disturbing heights after months of economic data showing New Jersey’s recovery is one of the slowest in the country.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), chairman of the budget committee, said the Christie administration was bragging about low-wage, temporary jobs poorly suited to New Jersey’s "highly skilled, highly educated workforce."

View full size

"They’re not the technological or manufacturing jobs that we need," Sarlo said. "Clearly, this administration’s economic policies are not giving employers the confidence they need."

The last time New Jersey’s unemployment rate has been as much as 1.4 percentage points higher than the national rate was 1978, according to U.S. labor department statistics.

While other northeastern states saw their unemployment rates rise in June, their jumps were smaller than New Jersey’s and their overall rates remain lower. Connecticut’s rate is 8.1 percent, New York is at 8.9 percent and Pennsylvania’s is 7.5 percent.

Christie blasted President Obama on Wednesday at a Washington fundraiser for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, saying the president failed to deliver on his promise to keep U.S. unemployment below 8 percent.

Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Camden) said Christie showed a lot of "chutzpah" considering the "sky-high" unemployment figures in the governor’s own state.

"Under this governor, New Jersey’s unemployment rate trails our neighboring states and lags the national average by more than a full point," Greenwald said. "It’s clear that the governor is more interested in preening for the national media spotlight than working to create jobs for New Jersey’s middle class."

New Jersey began the year at 9 percent unemployment, held on to that number for three months and began inching up in April. Brian Murray, a spokesman for the state labor department, said "there’s more than a rate involved." State employers added jobs in nine of the last 10 months, he said. "We’ve got a long way to go but there is progress here, and that’s an important point," he said.

Job gains were led by an industry sector that includes hotels and restaurants, which added 6,100 employees, according to the labor report. The manufacturing sector lost 2,400 jobs and 2,300 evaporated from the wholesale trade industry. Local governments added 3,100 people to their payrolls, while the state shed 500 jobs and the federal government lost 300 in New Jersey.

Star-Ledger staff writer Jenna Portnoy contributed to this report.

Related coverage:

• U.S. unemployment rate stays at 8.2 percent

• 26,000 N.J. residents will lose extended unemployment benefits this week

• PolitiFact N.J.: NJ unemployment rate is 5th highest in the nation, senator says

• Only 69,000 jobs added in May, unemployment rate rises for first time since June