Last month, I hosted an IssuesWatch Live webcast on the short- and long-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the nation’s and New Jersey’s economies. The response to this broadcast was overwhelming, with many members asking us to report more on economic news (you can watch a recording of the broadcast at here).

During the webcast, I interviewed two prominent economists: Daniel Bachman from Deloitte, who addressed national economics, and Jim Hughes from Rutgers University, who spoke on New Jersey’s economy. Jim recently passed along to me a report that he and his colleagues released, Coronavirus Economic Pivot: Precipitous Fall to Recovery Crawl?, which focuses on both New Jersey and the nation. Here are a few highlights from this insightful report:

• The “Great Coronavirus-Driven Contraction,” which began in February, was our nation’s first deliberately induced recession.
• The “Cruelest Month” — April 2020 — has little or no historic parallel and saw a loss of 20.7 million jobs. The overall job loss from February through April wiped out 97 percent of the employment gains from the preceding 10 years!
• As parts of the economy began reopening in May, slightly more than 10 percent of the lost jobs were recovered.
• If the timeframe of the full employment recovery from the Great Recession is repeated for the aftermath of the Great Contraction, New Jersey would not fully recover its job losses until January 2029. That’s sobering! However, a mid-decade recovery of all job losses is certainly a possibility.

You can read the full report here.

Later this month I’m going to be hosting another IssuesWatch broadcast that I think you’ll find insightful and useful. It’s going to cover the dire impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the New Jersey’s fiscal condition and the budget hole of up to $10 billion that it’s caused. I’ll be interviewing Senator Steve Oroho, who is one of the most knowledgeable legislators on fiscal issues, and NJ Spotlight reporter John Reitmeyer, who is one of the most knowledgeable journalists on the issue. The broadcast will air on July 8, July 13 and July 17 and is free for NJCPA members.