Interview: Christina Renna

Christina Renna

President & CEO Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey

What specific projects are you working on and how will they impact the area?

We were really pleased to join the New Jersey Coalition for Independent Work last year. There have been movements in numerous states to classify independent contractors as employees and this has been met with tremendous pushback nationally. We’re proud to call some key entities in the gig economy members of our chamber. The coalition was created by some of these organizations to keep their workers classified as independent contractors so they can continue providing flexibility for the workforce while also allowing them to take advantage of certain worker benefits at the same time. These workers helped some of the most vulnerable industries at the height of the pandemic, so we want to be able to make an agreement that benefits all parties.

How is South Jersey’s economy transforming?

South Jersey is finally getting a hard look from companies that never would have considered the region before. This is predominantly for two reasons. First, South Jersey is the only area in New Jersey where there is land available to relocate your business or grow and expand your operations. And second, New Jersey has enormously high taxes but in South Jersey our property taxes are considerably lower than other areas of the state. Companies like Amazon have exploded in terms of their growth across South Jersey and Philadelphia. We’re also seeing a rebirth in food manufacturing and distribution industries; South Jersey was a manufacturing hub in the early 1990s and we’re seeing that return. Wind energy is also an enormous growth opportunity for the region and New Jersey’s wind port has the potential to be the backbone of economic growth in South Jersey. This is important not only for the state’s energy infrastructure but also for job growth, particularly in the most economically depressed areas of the region. Because of our vast agricultural space and farmland, there is huge potential for the growing cannabis industry now that it has been legalized for recreational use in New Jersey.

New Jersey is the only state in which every county is a metropolitan area.

( ) it uncompetitive for financial services industries, the state has several major banking, investment, insurance and accounting firms. The industry employed 222,000 people in 2018, contributing $33 billion to the state economy.

The location of New Jersey as an East Coast hub close to major metro areas combined with its affordable land prices turned the state into a manufacturing hub. Despite being known as an agricultural community, throughout the 20th century South Jersey intensified its activities in manufacturing, sparking huge population growth, especially in the post-war era. Almost 9,000 advanced manufacturing firms in New Jersey employ almost 250,000 people and generate $47.4 billion in state GDP. The manufacturing activity ties into the logistics and transportation sectors of the state, with infrastructure spending serving as a main driver of employment. The transportation, logistics and distribution sector contributed almost $60 million to New Jersey’s GDP in 2017.

Demographic shifts New Jersey’s most recent census data shows it has a total population of 9.3 million, giving it 12 congressional