Nearly 10,000 small businesses gone in New Jersey.
A Decade of Small Business Loss
NFIB/NJ has warned for years that
the state’s onslaught of policies that discourage business growth will be
devastating to the primary driver of job creation: small businesses. And
unfortunately, this has come to pass. From 2004 to 2014, New Jersey lost more
than 9,500 of its 180,000 small businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
Ocean County was the only county to
escape small business loss; meanwhile, Warren, Sussex, and Salem counties lost
the most at 13 percent.
In addition to state policies that
haven’t been business-friendly, Deborah Smarth, chief operating officer of the
NJ Small Business Development Centers, told NJ.com that the economy has discouraged business
owners across the state.
“In recoveries, small businesses are
the ones that have been job savers and creators,” she told NJ.com. “Yet the New
Jersey government has not been friendly to small businesses.”