Sandy has caused untold billions of dollars in damage across the Garden State, with major rebuilding efforts planned in numerous communities both up and down the coast.
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“The full impact of Hurricane Sandy on the Jersey economy is not yet known, but it is essentially a loss of economic output over the next few months, November and December,” said James Hughes, an economist at Rutgers University. It will be broken…a lot of people could be.” Either they can’t get a job, or their jobs are temporarily closed. ”
Despite increased work for tree fellers and other emergency providers, he said.
“There are many other sectors that have lost economic output permanently, such as meals that are not eaten out and certain services like that. “Once the process begins, we will see a surge in economic output.”
So could efforts to repair hurricane damage ultimately give the Jersey economy a big boost?
Hughes said, “A lot depends on the ultimate size of federal aid, the ultimate size of insurance payouts, and the willingness of people to reinvest that money… rebuilding is really net net. , and the question is whether it will be greater. Short-term economic losses in production … At this point, it is really unclear how the balance sheet will perform.”