NJ jobless rate soars to new high: 16.6 percent

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New Jersey’s unemployment rate hit a record-high 16.6 percent in June, as the COVID-19 pandemic lingers in its fifth month, dragging out mass business closures and ravaging the state’s economy.

Thursday’s numbers make up New Jersey’s highest-ever unemployment rate since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began following that data in 1976.

Last week, roughly 37,347 state residents filed for jobless claims, according to Thursday morning data from the U.S. labor department.

The state’s unemployment rate was 15.2 percent in May and 16.3 percent in April, according to data from the BLS, which tracks state-by-state employment data.

Virtually all of the new claims were from workers who were laid off or furloughed since mid-March as a direct result of a host of restrictions put in place on what kinds of businesses could stay open.

Those closures – many of which were since lifted in May and June – applied to dine-in restaurants, non-essential retail, bars, casinos, malls, nail and hair salons, most forms of construction, and indoor and outdoor amusement activities such as golf courses, theme parks and gyms.

“People who were furloughed” months ago “were confident that they were going to get their jobs back … and the data has shown that in fact, our recovery is going to be slower than people were hoping,” said Christopher Hayes, a labor professor at Rutgers University.

Between May and June, the state’s private sector added 219,800 new jobs – 26 percent of the jobs lost the month before – bringing the total workforce to just over 3.6 million, according to the BLS. The month before, the state added 89,900 new jobs to the private sector.

Jobless benefits for any of the 1.4 million unemployed residents who’ve already burned through their state aid will get another 20 weeks of assistance, because New Jersey met the federal threshold in May for a high unemployment rate.

“In times of economic distress and employment uncertainty, it’s important to be able to offer an additional 20-week safety net to our residents who remain out of work through no fault of their own,” Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said in a Thursday morning statement.

Claimants who’ve gone through the last of their 39 weeks of jobless aid will automatically be enrolled in the 20-week extension, Asaro-Angelo said.

But the aid could lack the added $600 in weekly jobless benefits that were included in the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, and slated to lapse in July.

Talks are underway in Congress to extend that in some form, but they could continue into August—after the additional benefits will have run out.

Since March 15, when Gov. Phil Murphy first enacted a sweeping host of restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19 – freezing the state’s economic activity in the process – the state has paid out $10.7 billion in jobless benefits.

According to the state labor department, $6.5 billion of that was from the federal CARES Act expansion, $3.3 billion was from the state’s unemployment trust fund, $753 million was from the federal CARES Act jobless aid for freelancers, gig workers and independent contractors, $228 million was from federal extensions to jobless benefits and the remaining $2.2 million was from state extensions.

All told, 96 percent of the nearly 1.4 million that filed for jobless aid have received their unemployment benefits, leaving more than 55,000 New Jerseyans that have still not gotten their benefits.

Many have complained about unemployment claims lagging since they were filed in March, frequent technical issues with the website, and near impossibility with getting in touch with a live human being to aid in jobless claims.