Why the Economy of a Small City Is Hard to Summarize
Camden is a small city by land area, sitting across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. Its economy cannot be understood by looking only at the city’s borders. Jobs located in Camden are often held by people who live elsewhere in the region, and many residents work outside the city. That is true of most older cities in a large metropolitan area, but it shapes almost every question about local employment.
This article gives a broad, careful picture. It deliberately avoids precise figures for unemployment, income, poverty or job counts. Those numbers change from year to year and differ depending on the source and the date. Readers who need current figures should check the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
From Factory City to a Different Economy
For much of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Camden was known as a manufacturing and shipping city. Shipyards, food processing and the production of recorded sound equipment were among the large employers, and many families built their working lives around a few big plants. The story of that period is told in more detail in the material on industrial Camden.
Beginning in the middle of the twentieth century, manufacturing employment fell sharply in the city and in many comparable places. The reasons included plant closures, automation, changing transportation and the movement of jobs and residents outward. This broad pattern is usually called deindustrialization. The city’s tax base and its population were affected, and the effects are still part of the local conversation.
Today’s economy is more mixed and less dependent on any one employer.
Major Employment Sectors
Several kinds of employers are commonly associated with jobs in the city. The list below is general; it is not a ranking and it does not say how many people each sector employs.
- Healthcare. Hospitals, clinics and medical education institutions have long been significant employers. Health systems tend to offer a wide range of jobs, from clinical roles to administration, food service and maintenance.
- Education. Public schools, charter and renewal schools, and colleges and universities employ teachers, support staff, administrators and researchers. A separate article describes the education system in more detail.
- Government. City, county, state and federal offices, courts and public agencies provide steady employment, though public budgets can limit hiring.
- Logistics, port and transportation activity. The city’s position on the river and its highway and rail connections have kept freight, storage and distribution relevant. The role of port facilities in the local economy goes back well over a century.
- Retail, food service and small businesses. Neighborhood stores, restaurants and service businesses employ many people, often in small numbers per business.
- Construction and building trades. Public and private projects, including work on the waterfront, create periodic demand for these trades.
- Office and professional work. Some companies have located offices or headquarters in the city in recent years, often with the help of incentives. How lasting and how broadly beneficial these arrangements are is discussed in the articles on attracting businesses and on economic revitalization.
Commuting and the Regional Labor Market
Camden is part of a large metropolitan area, and the region functions as one labor market. Workers cross the Delaware River in both directions every day. Several features make that possible: the river bridges, highways, the PATCO Speedline, New Jersey Transit light rail and bus service. Public transportation matters for residents who do not have a car and want access to jobs in Philadelphia or in suburban Camden County.
This has two consequences worth keeping in mind:
- A job opening in Camden does not necessarily mean a job for a Camden resident. Employers may recruit across the region, and requirements for education or experience can limit who is hired.
- A resident’s job is not necessarily in Camden. Commuting can widen opportunity, but it also depends on travel time, cost, schedules and, sometimes, childcare.
Because of this, discussions of “local jobs” are often really discussions of access: whether residents have the training, transportation and connections to reach the jobs that exist nearby.
Long-Running Economic Challenges
Camden has faced economic difficulty for decades. Without using specific statistics, the broad themes are generally agreed upon:
- Poverty and low incomes. A larger share of residents has lived with low incomes than in many other New Jersey communities, though the situation is not the same in every household or neighborhood.
- Employment barriers. Gaps in education, limited transportation, health issues, caregiving duties and a lack of work history can make it harder to find steady jobs.
- A constrained tax base. Large amounts of property are tax-exempt, such as hospitals, universities and government buildings, and property values have historically been low. That limits the revenue available for services. The relationship between property taxes and city spending is covered under municipal budgets, and the history of financial stress under state oversight.
- Vacant and contaminated land. Former industrial sites can be costly to clean and redevelop, which slows new employment uses.
It is important to describe these as conditions facing a city, not as faults of the people who live there. Residents have a wide range of skills, ambitions and work histories, and many are employed, running businesses or seeking better work.
Efforts to Change the Picture
Public agencies, anchor institutions, nonprofits and private developers have all pursued strategies intended to strengthen the local economy. These include tax incentives for employers, investment in the waterfront and downtown areas, infrastructure projects, support for small businesses, and workforce training. Supporters point to new employers and construction; critics ask who benefits, how much public money is involved and whether residents are actually being hired. Both questions are reasonable, and the evidence is mixed and still developing.
Some of the points above are explored further in articles on job training, small business resources and economic challenges.
How to Look at Current Information
Economic conditions change, so the most reliable approach is to check official and independent sources:
- Labor force and employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
- Census Bureau profiles for demographic and income data, keeping in mind that estimates for small areas carry margins of error.
- City and county budget documents and public meetings for information about spending priorities.
- Reporting from local and regional news outlets, read alongside the primary data.
When reading any claim about Camden’s economy, whether optimistic or pessimistic, it helps to ask what is being measured, over what period, and for which group of people.