TRENTON - More than 1 million New Jersey residents have filed for jobless benefits and the state has paid out about $2 billion since the coronavirus outbreak hit in March, state labor officials announced Thursday. FULL COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS The state Labor and Workforce Development Department said the number of claims is “by far the most ever recorded” over a similar time frame.
The week ending May 2 saw 88,000 new claims, up from 72,000 the week before. Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said in a statement that the 1 million claim milestone was “staggering” and that they never thought they’d reach such a figure in so short a time.