Unemployment claims are on the rise again in New Jersey after the Department of Labor received another 24,663 new filings for the week ending Sept. 19.
With the 25% increase in claims, total filings since mid-March — when businesses were forced to close to stop the spread of coronavirus — now top 1.6 million, the Labor Department said Thursday.
“New Jersey workers continue to struggle with the weight of unemployment and underemployment, and the accompanying financial worries of not having a job,” Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said. “The Labor Department staff knows the difficulties our customers are facing, so they work hard every day to resolve as many cases and answer as many questions as possible.”
The department saw an avalanche of claims come through in mid-March when Gov. Phil Murphy forced most businesses and restaurants to shutter while New Jersey was the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. The closures led to skyrocketing claims to be filed in a short time, with some weeks topping 200,000 new claims.
Of the 1.6 million applicants, about 1.4 million were found eligible for New Jersey’s unemployment benefits. Roughly 96% of those have received at least one payment, the Labor Department said.
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Tens of thousands of workers are still awaiting unemployment benefits because of the sudden rise in claims and technological hurdles the Labor Department has faced, and countless other workers have seen their payments stop without notice. The agency continues to work through a backlog of 30,000 to 40,000 claims, Asaro-Angelo said at a Senate hearing earlier in September.
Asaro-Angelo pointed to federal requirements that caused a daily average of 5,000 claimants to be in “pending” status until a manual claim was input. The agency has talked of technological and design upgrades to be made to the system over the next six years, but it’s unclear who would cover the multi-million dollar costs.
Weekly unemployment claims have ebbed and flowed in the months since New Jersey began its gradual reopening. Since July 4, new weekly claims have stayed between 13,000 and 28,500.
The state’s Unemployment Trust Fund is on shaky legs, as more than $4.8 billion has gone to people out of work in the last six months. It’s pushed the Department of Labor to use a federal line of credit to pay claims, and force a $919 million increase in unemployment payroll taxes for New Jersey businesses.
The state was accepted into FEMA’s Lost Wages Supplemental Assisstance program, which will provide unemployed workers a $300 supplemental check for up to six weeks. Right now, New Jersey is approved for three weeks of benefits, retroactive to the weeks of Aug. 1, Aug. 8, and Aug. 15.
States were instructed to apply for three weeks of benefits at a time, beginning Aug. 1, and apply each week thereafter until the fund was depleted or through the week ending Sept. 5.
New Jersey workers who are eligible for unemployment may receive 60 percent of their wages, up to $713. Although the $600 supplement expired, the Labor Department continues to issue those payments for eligible claims for weeks ending April 4 through July 25.
Since the pandemic began, the Labor Department has distributed $15.6 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits, including $286 million for the week ending Sept. 19.
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Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz.
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