Nearly two-thirds of moves involving New Jersey were outbound in 2014, according to nj.com, citing a survey conducted by United Van Lines, the moving company.

United tracked 4,003 outbound New Jersey moves versus 2,169 inbound moves last year. The exodus amounts to almost 65 percent of the moves.

“The study is based on household moves handled by United within the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C.,” the company said. It said it classifies states as “high outbound” when 55 percent or more moves involve people leaving the state.

Saying the city is “lucky to have her,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel threw his full support Monday behind Deborah Quazzo, his school board appointee who sees no conflict of interest with her investments in companies that sell millions of dollars of educational software to the district she’s tasked with overseeing.

But speaking for the first time since the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that CPS’ business with companies Quazzo invested in tripled since Emanuel appointed her, the mayor refused to answer questions about when he learned about her business interests with Chicago Public Schools.

“Deb has the public spiritedness and the commitment on education as well as public policy, but on education specifically, to serve and bring that energy and that passion to her role on the CPS board,” he said at a news conference on his first day back from a South American vacation.

Bruce Rauner became a Republican rock star when he unseated a Democratic governor in left-leaning Illinois, pledging to run Barack Obama’s home state in the mold of GOP darlings Scott Walker and Mitch Daniels. But as he takes office this month, many are wondering: Can he deliver on the hype?

There are reasons to believe the answer is no, and that Rauner’s victories may have ended on Election Day. Unlike Walker in Wisconsin and Daniels in Indiana — governors Rauner has called his role models — he inherits a state with deep financial problems and a Legislature that’s overwhelmingly Democratic. That could make achieving his top priorities, such as closing the state’s multibillion-dollar budget hole and switching public employees to a 401k-style retirement system, far more difficult.

But Rauner and others insist that Illinois’ first divided government in more than a decade won’t mean four years of gridlock, but rather produce the kind of chemistry needed to end years of legislative near-paralysis.

For years, Harvard’s experts on health economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now be applied to the Harvard faculty, and the professors are in an uproar.

Members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the heart of the 378-year-old university, voted overwhelmingly in November to oppose changes that would require them and thousands of other Harvard employees to pay more for health care. The university says the increases are in part a result of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, which many Harvard professors championed.

The faculty vote came too late to stop the cost increases from taking effect this month, and the anger on campus remains focused on questions that are agitating many workplaces: How should the burden of health costs be shared by employers and employees? If employees have to bear more of the cost, will they skimp on medically necessary care, curtail the use of less valuable services, or both?

It’s going to keep getting better, Chicago.

After a year in which our economy showed signs of progress—particularly a sharply reduced jobless rate—2015 should bring the region closer to the more robust recovery other parts of the country have enjoyed, experts predict.

The year will feature stronger growth, more jobs created and—perhaps you should sit down—higher wages.

Gov. Pat Quinn prepares to leave the state’s top job, he’s worried about Illinois losing a prominent progressive voice and suggested his legacy is not defined by an electoral defeat, but his effort to stabilize Illinois at one of the lowest points in its history.

The populist Democrat, who hands the reins of power to Republican Bruce Rauner on Monday, listed no regrets.

“I think you put your whole body and soul into every issue,” Quinn said when asked if he’d have done anything differently. “Some you win. Some you don’t win. Life goes on.”

For two straight weeks, New York City police officers have sharply cut back on making arrests and issuing summonses throughout the five boroughs, magnifying the growing divide between the city’s police force and its mayor,Bill de Blasio.

Officers made half as many arrests in the seven days through Sunday as in the same week a year ago. In the entire city, 347 criminal summonses were written, down from 4,077 a year ago, according to police statistics. Parking and traffic tickets also dropped by more than 90 percent.

Most precincts’ weekly tallies for criminal infractions were close to zero: In Coney Island, the precinct covering that neighborhood did not record a single parking ticket, traffic summons or ticket for a low-level crime like public urination or drinking, the statistics showed.

At every age, the chances of not working have changed in the last 15 years. Teenagers are far more likely not to work. Older people are retiring later and working more. In the ages in between — the periods of life when most people work — the changes have been smaller, but they are still substantial.

In the late 1960s, almost all men between the ages of 25 and 54 went to work. Only about 5 out of every 100 did not have a job in any given week. By 2000, this figure had more than doubled, to 11 out of every 100 men. This year, it’s 16. (People in the military, prison and institutions are excluded from these figures.)

Of course, the economy was stronger in 2000 than it is today, with a lower official unemployment rate — the share of people not working and actively looking for work — than today. But for prime-age men, the rise in official unemployment explains only about one-third of the increase in not working.