BY SALVARTORE PIZZURO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

Throughout our State’s ordeal, Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D., Bergen/Passaic) has questioned the Governor’s plans for New Jersey’s economy and suggests that action must be taken in order to provide relief for the people of New Jersey. Currently, New Jersey’s unemployment rate remains at 9.6%. As Schaer points out, "More importantly, New Jersey's unemployment rate is still significantly higher than our national rate. It puts us at the bottom of the list in terms of those states that have been able to come back from the recession.”

Schaer serves as the Vice Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee and as the Chair of the Insurance Committee. Over the last two years, he has fought vigorously to protect homeowners who are near default from unscrupulous lenders. Schaer recognizes that working class and poor families are the primary victims of a sluggish economy and the last to recover under Christie’s policies. He also points out that the recent seasonal surge in jobs was a result of the holiday season and produced only low paying service-type jobs. As Schaer also suggests:

"But we need to keep those numbers in perspective in New Jersey. Number one, many of those jobs, if not most of those jobs were seasonal jobs: people working in retail for Christmas. Unfortunately, not very high paying jobs……..And we need to be cautious about these numbers, to make sure that we're not patting ourselves on the back, but rather sitting down and continuing to roll up our sleeves to come out with the kind of legislation that we are in the Assembly majority, to ensure that New Jersey's economy will come back; come back stronger and faster than it has."

The struggle to re-invigorate the State’s economy will continue as many people are still unemployed and struggle to find a stable source of income.