By Erin OÕNeill, NJ.com
The volunteer rate in New Jersey last year ranked near the bottom nationwide, a new federal study shows, despite an expectation by officials that the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort may help boost the stateÕs numbers. Last year, 22.4 percent of New Jersey residents volunteered their time, according to the study from the Corporation for National and Community Service and the National Conference on Citizenship, compared to 25.4 percent of residents nationwide. That ranks New Jersey 45th nationwide, the study found, with West Virginia, Arkansas, Florida, Nevada, New York and Louisiana posting lower volunteer rates in 2013. Utah tops the list at 44.6 percent. Rowena Madden, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Volunteerism, said itÕs not clear whatÕs keeping the stateÕs rate near the bottom though several theories exist, including that some types of volunteer work may not be captured in the data and long commutes are keeping residents from service activities. ÒWe think our volunteers are doing great things all the time,Ó Madden said. Still, she said, ÒWe want to do better.Ó The study, which was released last week, found 1.45 million New Jersey residents volunteered a total of more than 206 million hours of service in 2013. The study only counts people who did unpaid work through or for an organization. Also, the report cautions that its rankings are based on estimates with margins of error. ~1@BODYURL[id=114jbcurl1227]@