Manufacturing has been one of the strongest and most adaptable industries in New Jersey throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, the New Jersey Legislative Manufacturing Caucus held a roundtable with ten of New Jersey’s manufacturers to hear about how they have adapted their businesses and to ascertain the issues that they faced in doing so, as well as those facing their businesses as the state begins its reopening. From companies like Unionwear in Newark, which switched from making baseball caps for Census Trackers to shields and gowns for our frontline healthcare workers, to GEMCO in Middlesex, which faced issues with needing to furlough workers due to a sharp decline in sales, to City Theatrical in Carlstadt, who is staring down the possibility of Broadway not opening again until 2021, the issues faced by Manufacturers in the state of New Jersey are real. ​

Morris County has been awarded the top-ranked Triple-A bond rating from the nation’s two largest rating agencies, Moody’s Investors Services, Inc., and Standard & Poor’s, for the 45th consecutive year, with the ratings agencies saying the county’s stable management and fiscal policies should allow it to endure the current health crisis. In particular, the ratings agencies lauded the Board of Freeholders’ response to the COVID-19 crisis, particularly creation of a COVID-19 Strategic Planning Advisory Committee, which is reviewing short term and long-term ramifications of the health pandemic and planning a safe and prudent reopening of Morris County.