More Than $28 Billion in Benefits Delivered to New Jersey Workers

New Unemployment Claims Drop Slightly Over the Week

TRENTON – The Garden State saw a slight decrease in new unemployment claims from the previous week, as the number of pandemic-related benefits sent to Garden State workers reached $28.1 billion.

For the week ending May 7, a total of 13,389* new claims were received, marking a 4 percent decline over the week. Since last March, the state has received 2,165,073** applications for unemployment benefits, including more than 266,000 claims that have been reopened, meaning the claimant is seeking to receive benefits after a period of having returned to work within the course of a year.

The average benefit per claimant now tops $18,400.

Here are the week-by-week totals of new unemployment claims:

Here is the breakdown of weekly benefits payments to eligible New Jersey workers:

The American Rescue Plan signed March 11 extends Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) – the $300 supplement – to eligible claimants for 25 weeks, through Sept. 4.

The maximum eligibility for PUA is now 75 weeks. PEUC now provides up to 49 weeks of additional benefits to those who exhaust 26 weeks of state unemployment. Extended benefits (EB) adds 13 weeks. The $300 FPUC supplement is for anyone collecting unemployment in any amount during eligible weeks. There is also a provision in the new rescue law that excludes the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits from having to be reported as income on federal taxes for households earning less than $150,000/year.

For more information on state or federal unemployment benefits, visit myunemployment.nj.gov.

Information on virtual Career Services can be found here: nj.gov/labor/career-services.

Visit New Jersey’s job resource at CareerServices.nj.gov.

For national unemployment data, visit https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf. For archived NJ claims data, visit https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/DataDashboard.asp.

*This represents the final number for the week ending May 7. The number listed for New Jersey by the US Department of Labor – 12,850– is based on advanced reporting.

**The number of new initial claims includes 266,042 claims that have been reopened by residents who returned to unemployment after a period of employment within a calendar year, as well as claims that turned out to be fraudulent.

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