NJ.com: New unemployment claims tick up in N.J. despite nationwide drop

By Sophie Nieto-Munoz

New Jersey is experiencing a rise in new unemployment filings even as new applications are falling across the country.

Another 14,073 claims were filed for the week ending April 30, nearly 2,000 more than the prior week, and marking the third week of increases. Yet it’s a steep drop from where claims were this time in 2020 — the state Labor Department received 90,000 initial claims for the same week last year.

Unemployment filings fell nationwide as businesses reopen amid the lifting of pandemic restrictions and increasing vaccination rates. Still, new filings remain higher than normal across the country.

Since March 2020, more than 2.1 million applications for jobless benefits have been filed in New Jersey, including more than 263,741 claims that have been reopened by claimants who are seeking new benefits after having returned to work within the last year.

And the department continues to automatically process claims that are reaching their one year anniversary and need to undergo a federally mandated review. People should not open new claims, since the state’s programming should automatically transition them.

If the process needed to be done manually, people’s benefits would have been stalled for weeks, spokeswoman Angela Delli-Santi has said. But some New Jersey claimants are reporting their claims are stalled as they have problems certifying their benefits or receiving money.

The state maintains the issue surrounding the trigger off of High Extended Benefits and transition to Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation has been resolved. Many claimants have overlapping issues that are holding up their claims, Delli-Santi said.

Read the full report here.