When Plans Don’t Go According to Plan

Report to Members

By Michele N. Siekerka, NJBIA President and CEO On Nov 28, 2025

If there is one mantra I’ve repeated more than any in the past 11 years at NJBIA it’s this: Businesses need predictability.

It’s not sexy, but truer words have never been spoken about our valued job creators.

What was sadly verified in our 67th Annual Business Outlook Survey are the challenges our businesses face when confronted with a double dose of unpredictable negatives, as they were in 2025.

Specifically, we’re talking about tariffs set or threatened by President Donald Trump and a massive and mostly unforeseen rise in energy costs that challenged profits in a state with already well-established headwinds. 

A total of 77% of respondents said they were either substantially or moderately impacted by increased energy costs in 2025. 

And even though NJBIA had been sounding the alarm since 2020 that Gov. Phil Murphy’s Energy Master Plan, which overprioritized an offshore wind program that never took flight and distanced itself from more affordable and reliable nuclear and natural gas sources, would eventually do great economic damage, businesses still got sticker shock.

In fact, 68% of respondents said they were either very surprised or somewhat surprised by their big energy cost increases.

It was encouraging to see New Jersey’s gubernatorial candidates campaigning on lowering those energy expenses. But still there was little optimism among job creators that the electric genie was going back into the bottle. A total of 81% said they were not confident at all or somewhat unconfident that the energy costs would moderate in 2026.

Mostly unforeseen tariffs presented by the Trump administration, whether threatened or actually tested, were also disruptive to New Jersey job creators. Forty-nine percent of respondents said tariffs impacted their supply chains in 2025.

Of those, 88% said they faced increased prices from their supply chains.

Those survey results verified what we were hearing directly from our manufacturers in 2025. 

I recall visiting a large, sports collectible manufacturer in Piscataway earlier this year. Its business model was dependent on how affordably products could be made in China. Trump’s tariffs threatened its very livelihood.

Unfortunately, what was predictable in 2025 was the continued sense that lawmakers were not doing nearly enough to address business affordability here.

It’s our hope that new leadership in Trenton will bring some much-needed improvement to our business climate in New Jersey. Until then, we are largely left with Business Outlook Survey results that show a great need for more positive consistency amid declining profits and expectations.

To access more business news, visit NJB News Now.

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