Corrado Blames Murphy, Labor Commissioner for Ongoing Unemployment Mess

While thousands of New Jersey residents remain caught up in unemployment limbo, unable to get help from the Department of Labor, federal employees are back at their desks full time. Senator Kristin Corrado called the dysfunction at the state agency inexcusable.

In his State of the Union speech this week, the President boasted that COVID is under control: “We can end the shutdown of schools and businesses. We have the tools we need. It’s time for America to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again with people. People working from home can feel safe and begin to return to their offices. We’re doing that here in the federal government. The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person.”

“Maybe the Governor and the commissioner of labor didn’t get the memo,” said Corrado (R-40). “State leadership has failed residents by not providing them with baseline constituent services, including in-person unemployment assistance. It has been two years, and it is high time to get their workers – vital, public-facing employees who are critical to the unemployment system – back in the game.”

Corrado noted that in August, Murphy pledged that all state workers would return to their offices full time by Oct. 18. Four-and-a-half months later, some still have not returned.

“He misled our residents. Too many New Jerseyans have been unable to obtain the most basic of government services from either unemployment or the Motor Vehicle Commission,” said the Senator. “This is a disturbing government failure on the taxpayers dime.

“Irate and frustrated residents continue calling our office desperate for help,” Corrado noted. “Many of them have been back to work for months but have yet to receive benefits for time when they were out of work.

“The Governor and Commissioner Asaro-Angelo can ease the logjam immediately by telling their workers it is time to get back to business. The way state residents have been ‘assisted’ is disgraceful, and leadership has shown no accountability.”