NJBIA released its 66th annual Business Outlook Survey on Dec. 2. While much of the attention of the 2025 outlook survey focused on New Jersey’s next governor, there were many other facets of the survey.
Today, we look at deeper at New Jersey’s competitive levels and economic outlooks for the new year found in the 2025 Business Outlook Survey.
New Jersey’s Competitive Levels
The leading competitive positive for New Jersey: 46% rate the quality of New Jersey public schools to be better than other states. At protecting the environment, 26% said New Jersey does better than other states – a 2% bump from last year.
Another notable positive – 28% said the quality of New Jersey’s workforce was better than other states.
For a second straight year, 15% said the state does a better job in promoting economic development.
New Jersey continues to struggle in many areas more tied directly to business. It was listed as worse than other states in taxes and fees (85%) and controlling government spending (70%).
Economic Outlooks
The economic outlooks for New Jersey and the nation are much more optimistic than in recent years.
Most (37%) rated New Jersey’s economy as fair, but 31% said it was poor – which is 13 percentage points more than last year. Meanwhile, 28% ranked the state economy as good and only 4% said it was excellent.
When asked how New Jersey’s economy will fare in the first six months of 2025, 23% said it would be better. A year ago, only 14% reported it would be better. Further, only 26% said it would be worse for the first six months of 2025, compared to 45% who said it would be worse a year ago looking ahead.
That’s only a -3% net outlook, much improved over the last two surveys (-31% net negative outlook for 2024 and -36% outlook for 2023).
Most (63%) rated the US economy as fair (37%) or poor (29%).
