State unemployment hits worst spike since early May

More than 47,000 New Jerseyans filed for unemployment benefits last week, marking the biggest jump in claims since 70,000 claims were filed in a week in early May.

“The number of people in need is staggering. We’ve had 1.35 million applicants since mid March; 1.2 million of them have met the earnings requirements to receive benefits, with 96 percent of them having received payment,” Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said.” We won’t let up until every claim has received a determination, every question has been answered and every claimant has been served.”

The new claims bring New Jersey to just under 1.35 million unemployment cases since the start of the pandemic.

The state has now paid out more than $3 billion in unemployment benefits over the past months, with another nearly $6 billion coming from weekly $600 Federal pandemic unemployment compensation payments and roughly $887 million in other federal benefits.