NAIOP event spotlights state's slow job growth.

More than 250 real estate professionals and members of The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties New Jersey Chapter attended the group's recent Economic Forecast and Outlook event at the Sheraton Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.

For the first time ever, NJ-NAIOP presented a keynote speaker from the Federal Reserve Bank. Rae Rosen, senior economist and assistant vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, noted that New Jersey's economy is growing, but the expansion in employment continues to lag the expansion in output. In fact, private sector job growth could average less than 1% this year. Rosen stressed that, in an era of slow job growth, attention to the state's competitiveness could help improve retention and leverage the growth of the economic base.

The expert panel also included Joel Naroff, Ph.D., chief economist for Commerce Bank and president of Naroff Economic Advisors. He noted that in the business sector, earnings have been strong, but productivity is slowing, labor costs are rising, and energy and commodity prices are up. In the coming year, inflation is the biggest concern, along with rising interest rates and a slowing housing market.

Robert Rudin, executive vice president of Cushman & Wakefield's consulting division in New Jersey, rounded out the forecast presentation. Specifically, Rudin said that the bulk of job growth in New Jersey is coming from low-wage jobs and not from the high paying office jobs the state needs to regain its economic health. As an example, he noted that in the pharmaceutical sector, New Jersey continues to lose jobs to Massachusetts and California because it is lagging in top-ranked colleges and universities and advanced degrees. Rudin cited the need for more pro-pharma/biotech policies, an infusion of venture capital into a biotech cluster and a strengthened education system as keys to maintaining New Jersey's status as the "medicine chest of the nation."