Abstract
The unfolding of the second decade of the new millennium is but a few months away. There is now a growing consensus among experts, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, that the Great 2007–2009 Recession technically came to an end in the third quarter of this year. So, it is highly probable that the new decade will begin with the nation’s aggregate economic output on an upward trajectory. However, we are not moving forward from a robust economic foundation—a condition that characterized the start of the current decade—but, instead, the nation is emerging from the depths of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Thus, it is vitally important to have a set of realistic economic expectations of what is to come. Consequently, the subject of this first Advance & Rutgers Report (formerly the Rutgers Regional Report) is developing the daunting arithmetic of employment recovery in the United States. The implications and conclusions of this sobering arithmetic can be instrumental in shaping the economic, business, and real estate markets as the new decade evolves.