starting a business requires hard work perseverance and money to help support new businesses in New Jersey the commission on science Innovation and Technology recently awarded a total of more than five hundred thousand dollars to 17 startups in the latest funding round of a small business assistance program the startups are focused on a range of industries from clean technology to Aerospace and gene therapy the commission is awarded nearly two and a half million dollars to 80 startups since 2020. with today being a holiday a lot of New Jersey workers are enjoying a four-day work week in Prospect Park most Municipal workers have had a four-day 40-hour Work Week all this month it's part of a pilot program that Prospect Park's mayor says provides a better work-life balance police officers and Public Works employees are not participating in the pilot which runs through June 30th the latest jobs report shows plenty of companies are still hiring but job candidates are getting frustrated by having to go through several rounds of interviews and a conference board survey finds 18 percent of those candidates take action if they don't hear back from a company Rebecca Ray is Executive Vice President of human capital at the conference board generationally you have a group of people now who are more likely to post a negative review or to refrain from recommending or to write off a company and perhaps products or Services when they're not or they perceive that they are not treated fairly in an interview finally State lawmakers are trying to encourage more people to save for retirement by making contributions to certain plans exempt from state income tax right now only 401K contributions are tax exempt but this bill would expand the tax exemption to other plans like 403 b retirement plans and IRAs several business groups are backing the legislation find out more by reading my colleague John reitmeyer's article on NJ spotlightnews.org I'm Rhonda schaffler and those are your top business stories support for the business report provided by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce announcing its renewed Jersey business Summit and Expo March 14th and 15th at Harrah's in Atlantic City event details online at njchamber.com