Here’s How New Jersey Can Keep Its Millennials: CPA Group

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Reduce taxes, attract more businesses and build affordable housing. That’s how New Jersey is going to keep its millennials, an Essex County-based group says.

The state’s business landscape will benefit if it manages to keep its millennials – people generally born between 1981 to 2000 – the New Jersey Society of CPAs (NJCPA) said.

According to a separate study from New Jersey Future, despite a nationwide growth of 6.8 percent, the state of New Jersey saw its population of millennials decrease by 2.4 percent from 2000 to 2013.

• See related article: New Jersey's 'Millennials' Are Leaving The State, Study Says

Ralph Albert Thomas, CEO and executive director at NJCPA, said that keeping millennials, as well as other at-risk age groups such as retirees, from leaving the state would help to stop the financial erosion that will accompany their exodus.

“More needs to be done to assist millennials in thinking of New Jersey as a viable place to live, and for businesses to keep hiring,” Thomas said.

The NJCPA conducted a survey last month among 975 of its 15,000 members, polling them in an attempt to find out the best ways to stop the Garden State’s millennial population from leaving for greener pastures.

Here’s what the NJSCPA identified as their most millennial-friendly recommendations for the Garden State:

“34 percent of the respondents cited reducing taxes (property, business, etc.) as the main reason millennials would stay, while 16 percent said bringing more businesses to the state would help and 14 percent recommended building more affordable housing, including lower rent.”

The survey’s respondents also had some other suggestions:

“Other ideas included improving and decreasing the cost of mass transit, such as bridges and tunnels; doing a better job of marketing the state and communities, including South Jersey; making New Jersey colleges more affordable, such as offering free county college enrollment for state residents; encouraging millennials to open small businesses; increasing technology jobs, in particular; creating more open space park land; creating better student loan interest rates; and legalizing marijuana for business opportunities.”

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