September 10, 2012. New York Times columnist Michael Powell cites FPI’s James Parrott in a piece about Chris Christie. Excerpt:
New York City officials complain a lot of late that the city’s 10 percent unemployment rate overstates its problems. Several experts believe they have a point — the Fiscal Policy Institute issued a report last week noting that the city’s real unemployment rate is most likely closer to 9 percent than to the official 10 percent. (A 9 percent rate is still higher than that of the nation as a whole. And the Bronx, with about a 13 percent rate, is the hardest hit county in the state).
I asked James Parrott, chief economist for the Fiscal Policy Institute, if the same could be said of New Jersey. Is the Garden State perhaps in better shape than it looks?
Not really, he says.