6:32
Brief
New Jersey’s unemployment rate remains among the nation’s highest, at 7.3%. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Federal unemployment benefits expanded during the coronavirus pandemic will expire Saturday in New Jersey.
The benefits, which supplemented regular unemployment assistance and were extended to those who typically were ineligible, were established under the federal CARES Act in March 2020 and renewed twice, in December 2020 and again in March.
Programs that will expire are:
- Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) for self-employed workers, independent contractors, and others not typically eligible for benefits;
- Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which extended unemployment payments to those who already exhausted regular unemployment benefits;
- and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), which added a weekly supplemental payment to regular unemployment.
The programs were intended to offset skyrocketing unemployment, mass layoffs, and widespread business closures. Advocates for the state’s unemployed urged Gov. Phil Murphy to extend the benefits using federal funds granted to the state, but this week Murphy said the state could not afford to do it.
In New Jersey, more than 2.2 million people filed for unemployment benefits, peaking at 200,000 workers filing weekly claims in April 2020. Sixteen months later, New Jersey is tied for the fifth highest unemployment rate in the nation at 7.3%.
The state has recovered roughly 60% of jobs lost since March 2020
About half of U.S. states already stopped the enhanced benefits, hoping to speed up job recovery. Researchers found that strategy didn’t boost employment.
Sophie Nieto-Muñoz contributed to this story.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
