Whoever is elected as New Jersey’s next governor will inherit a challenging economic environment. The state faces high taxes, increasing unemployment, slow gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and the ongoing impact of federal tariffs implemented during the Trump administration. There are also concerns about the potential effects of artificial intelligence on the labor market.
Some of these problems, such as tariffs and the influence of AI on jobs, are not easily addressed at the state level. Will Irving, a professor at the New Jersey State Policy Lab at Rutgers University, commented: “Some of those issues — like Trump’s tariffs and the rise of AI displacing portions of the labor market — certainly pose challenges that would be hard to combat via state policy alone.”
Recent data show that New Jersey’s GDP grew by 2.8% in the second quarter of this year. This figure is lower than both the national average of 3.8% and neighboring states such as Connecticut (4.6%), New York (4.0%), Pennsylvania (4.1%), and Delaware (3.2%). Texas reported a much higher GDP growth rate at 6.8%.
Irving noted that New Jersey’s lagging GDP is partly due to a long-term decline in manufacturing within the state.
New Jersey Herald, October 20, 2025
