NJ unemployment greatly exceeds last week's historic highs

That’s a total of 361,000 people filing for unemployment benefits in the state in two weeks, according to the state Department of Labor.

The new claims over the past two weeks dwarf the state’s previous record for jobless claims: In 2012, Superstorm Sandy led to a spike of 46,000 claims.

Nationally, numbers of new unemployment filers doubled, from 3.3 million last week to 6.48 million for the most recent week, as an increasing number of closed businesses could not continue meeting payrolls due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Unemployment benefits are available to those who are furloughed or laid off during this health emergency, and to temporary workers and independent contractors, state Sen. Michael Testa said during a virtual town hall hosted by the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce on Thursday afternoon.

All applications are taken online, according to the state Department of Labor.

“My understanding is even those whose have a reduction in hours are eligible,” said Testa, R-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic. “Freelancers, part-timers — anyone impacted by the coronavirus is eligible.”

Atlantic County has 3% of the state’s 8.9 million people but represents 6.2% of the week’s unemployment filers, indicating the county is being disproportionately affected by employment losses related to the virus.

The Digital Town Hall hosted by the Chamber of Commerce also provided information for businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Testa and Assemblymen Antwan McClellan and Erik Simonsen, both R-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, took a range of questions and comments, mostly from small business owners.

About 80 people participated, with many expressing concern about how much of a summer the Jersey Shore will have, and how they will fill jobs without foreign workers and as increased unemployment benefits make it less attractive to take a seasonal job.

Gina Sue Macconi said she runs Ri-Gi’s Amusement Center in Stone Harbor and relies on foreign workers. But this year, the J-1 Visa program that brings international workers to the shore is not functional because of the pandemic.

“In general, people are able to make so much on unemployment,” Macconi said, “they may not take the nominal jobs like dipping ice cream and water ice. I’m very worried about that.”

She asked if there were programs available to help businesses like hers, which will not open on time because of the health crisis.

The chamber has information on all assistance programs available on its website, said President Vicki Clark.

Visit capemay countychamber.com and click on chamber, then “coronavirus information for businesses” under “business resources.”

Clark said the application process for some programs to help small businesses will open Friday morning.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority emergency assistance grant program opens at 9 a.m. Friday, as does the federal CARES Act forgivable loan program. She suggested having all documentation available when sitting down at a computer to apply, and warned it is likely to be oversubscribed. It provides grants of $1,000 to $5,000.

“Similar to last week’s unemployment claims numbers, Thursday’s report reflects the sacrifices American workers are making for their families, neighbors and country in order to ‘slow the spread,’” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia.

Scalia said legislation recently signed by President Donald Trump “contains significant incentives for businesses to retain workers and continue paying them, which will put businesses and workers in a better position to resume work and reboot the economy once the virus is contained.”

The previous national high for unemployment was 695,000 in October 1982.

Because casinos did not start laying off workers until the end of this reporting period, the numbers released Thursday for New Jersey are not likely to yet reflect that industry’s layoffs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.