Jobless Claims Climb 14% Last Week In New Jersey
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Jobless claims in New Jersey climbed 14% to 26,392 last week, the state Labor Department said Thursday. Jobless claims had been falling since their peak of 215,000 claims in late March and early April. The department did not explain the uptick.
More than 1 million people have filed claims since the COVID-19 outbreak began,
"The volume of claims continues to be staggering, well beyond anything the states could have been prepared for," Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said in a statement..
Twenty-eight percent - or roughly 1.24 million workers - have been sidelined since the outbreak struck in New Jersey in early March, the department said. The state has paid out $7.2 billion in benefits as of June 13, with more than half coming from the federal government and the state making up more than $2 billion, according to the statement.
New Jersey is beginning to reopen from the outbreak, moving into Stage 2, of three, this week. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has reported the state's rate of transmission of the virus and the percentage of people testing positive are among the lowest in the country.
Still, the state was a hot spot, with more than 167,000 positive cases and nearly 13,000 deaths.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness or death.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press.
