The taxation on businesses is what is killing them; Mercedes moved its HQ from NJ to Atlanta recently, and those types of jobs are not coming back any time soon. The homes in the area of that HQ often have property taxes of more than $20K; I suspect many of those lost jobs resulted in foreclosures. You don’t just find another job like that very quickly here (if ever), and nobody else can afford to buy your home.
Yeah, recent grads aren't the only ones leaving NJ.
We always lost retirees, primarily due to weather, but now we’re losing them because they can’t stay in their homes - the taxes are too high for people on fixed incomes. Some of us are tied to careers and/or mortgages here, and just about every other “maker” is plotting an exit. The only ones that will remain are our government worker caste and welfare populations, both supported by our high taxes, and the imported foreigners to keep the schools and housing stock full.
There seems to be a genuine push to keep American students here for college; then they go to schools in other states they rarely come back.