During the pandemic, especially in the early months, public health officials and the media focused on the northern part of the state — with good reason. The virus hit first and most severely in Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties. But many communities in South Jersey were also vulnerable, from redeveloping urban centers to struggling rural areas.

For this edition of NJBIZ Conversations, Editor Jeff Kanige spoke with Christina Renna, the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey about the region’s response to COVID-19, the pace of its recovery and the outlook for the rest of the year and into 2022.

“I would say confidence is is decent at this point — less so for our smaller employers, our women-owned businesses that we mentioned, our minority-owned businesses — there’s a little lack of faith in our recovery there, which is why they need more assistance as we talked about initially,” she said. “But for our midsize employers our larger employers, they’re getting back to the way things were. Optimism is definitely there for the most part … the number one issue we need to clear up is the Labor shortage right now.

To watch the full interview, click here.