by KYW’s David Madden

New Jersey is in a recession, according to the latest assessment out of Rutgers University, and it’ll take a while to get out of it.
 
The Rutgers Economic Advisory Service estimates it’ll take till the first quarter of 2010 for trends to start to turn around, although the agency’s director, Dr. Nancy Mantell, adds this caution:

“This could obviously change. We do these forecasts all the time, so it’s not like this is set in stone or anything. But yes, we expect it to last a long time, but not be a huge recession for the state.”

As far as the nation, that’s another matter. Should inflation get out of hand, it could make things worse in the Garden State. But consider this -- things are no better in North Jersey than they are in South Jersey.