In February, New Jersey had the largest monthly decrease in unemployment nationwide as the state’s streak of adding jobs extended to the 15th consecutive month.
That’s according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported the Garden State posted a 0.5% percentage point drop from the previous month. Overall, the U.S. unemployment rate for February 2022 came in at 3.8%, while New Jersey’s fell to 4.6%.
Employers added 25,900 jobs to payrolls in February, according to the preliminary data released March 25.
February 2022, Monthly Employment Change – NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, DIVISION OF ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
In February, total nonfarm wage and salary employment in the state was a seasonally adjusted level of 4.15 million. All of that month’s job gains (26,200 jobs) came from the private sector, NJDOWLD said, with increases in eight of the nine major sectors.
Public sector employment decreased by 300 jobs.
Industries marking February gains include:
Trade, transportation, and utilities: +9,000
Leisure and hospitality: +5,200
Education and health services: +4,300
Other services: +3,100
Professional and business services: +2,300
Construction: +1,300
Manufacturing: +800
Information: +200
NJ Total Unemployment Rate, February 2022 – NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, DIVISION OF ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
January’s total nonfarm employment estimates were revised in the release of February’s information from the NJDOLWD, making the month-over-month increase 11,400 jobs — 3,100 more than initially reported. The overall unemployment rate, meanwhile, was revised by 0.1 percentage point less to 5.1%.
The state has regained 85.9% of the jobs lost in March and April 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s according to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports March 14 that New Jersey recorded an unemployment rate of 5.2% for January 2022.
NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, DIVISION OF ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAHPIC RESEARCH
In January 2021, that rate was 7.3%. According to US BLS, the national unemployment rate was “little changed over the month,” at 4.0%; 2.4 percentage points lower than the same month last year.
According to the state, the 0.1 percentage point increase over December’s rate comes as more residents enter the labor market to search for work. Total nonfarm employment was up by 8,300 jobs in January, for an adjusted 4.125 million.
The private sector saw the most gains (+6,500). Public sector employment, meanwhile, was up by 1,800 in January, though NJDOLWD noted that most gains came at the local level, accounting for all but 100 of the total.
Industries marking January gains include:
Trade, transportation and utilities: +4,400
Financial activities: +3,000
Construction: +600
Other services: +500
Leisure and hospitality: +400
Industries with January losses:
Professional and business services: -1,200
Education and health services: -600
Manufacturing: -400
Information: -200
NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, DIVISION OF ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAHPIC RESEARCH
Revisiting 2021
NJDOLWD also released BLS benchmark revisions for 2021. The annual process reviews and adjusts previously released employment data at the state and metropolitan area levels to re-anchor monthly, sample-based survey estimates to full-universe counts of employment.
Most notably, the revisions show that New Jersey’s recovery from April 2020’s pandemic-impacted low was stronger than originally reported. According to NJDOLWD, revised estimates show the Garden State regained 621,000 — 84.8% — of jobs lost; previous estimates put that number at 561,200 — 78.2% — jobs of the total lost during that period.
According to BLS’s benchmarking, NJDOLWD said New Jersey’s total change in nonfarm jobs for December 2020 to December 2021 was 212,400 jobs, marking a slight increase from the previously reported 208,700. Revisions also showed New Jersey lost more jobs than initially reported during March and April 2020 (732,600 adjusted versus 717,200 as previously reported).
All nine of the state’s major private industry sectors added jobs between December 2020 and December 2021, NJDOWLD said. Over the year, public sector employment was up by 12,000 jobs with the majority (11,900) coming through at the local level.
After benchmarking, New Jersey’s annual unemployment rate for 2021 was 6.3% — ranging from January’s high of 7.3% to lows of 5.1% in November and December. In 2020, the average was 9.5%, NJDOWLD said.
Preliminary BLS data for February 2022 will be released on March 24, 2022.
As many as 250,000 New Jerseyans could be told they no longer have to return COVID-19 unemployment benefits that they were previously told were “overpaid” to them, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development said on Feb. 8.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Labor put out guidance for how states can avoid clawing back pandemic-relief jobless aid.
New Jersey labor officials warned last month that 130,000 claimants were told that they were overpaid an average of $4,000, and that a total of 250,000 people in the state could be affected.
A slew of new programs were implemented as part of the CARES Act in the early days of the pandemic in response to record-high jobless claims due to mass business closures. These new federal programs – and the surge in unemployment claims – triggered “a significant number of state errors and inaccuracies due to these fast-changing circumstances,” reads the USDOL’s 40-page guidance.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh delivers remarks at the groundbreaking for the New Jersey Wind Port on Sept. 9, 2021. – EDWIN J. TORRES/NJ GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
“States did their best to pay benefits as quickly as they could during the pandemic, but implementing new programs quickly meant innocent mistakes that resulted in overpayments,” U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said in a prepared Feb. 8 statement from the New Jersey Department of Labor. “We encourage states to forgive as many honest mistakes as they can.”
Rules also gradually changed since that first round of federal relief in March 2020, the NJDOL noted. For example, claimants were no longer able to self-certify their income and employment history, but instead had to provide documentation.
New Jersey Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo signed onto a letter last month asking Congress to waive overpayments, as long as they were not done fraudulently, warning that “to try to recover these funds … stresses these workers and their families, strains the system of resources with little chance of success, and is counterintuitive to our mission of helping people in their time of need.”
An estimated $35 billion in jobless benefits have been paid out between March 2020 and September 2021, while 1.6 million people in the state have filed for unemployment.
New Jersey Commissioner for the Department of Labor and Workforce Development Robert Asaro-Angelo at Gov. Phil Murphy’s daily COVID-19 press briefing at the War Memorial in Trenton on May 21, 2020. – RICH HUNDLEY, THE TRENTONIAN
The new guidance calls for five scenarios where overpayments could be waived, all stemming back to pandemic-specific benefits, such as those for freelance workers, gig workers and the self-employed. These rules apply specifically to those benefits, part of the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, as well as the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which extended benefits until September 2021.
For example, someone who indicated “no,” if they were not able to work, and then received PUA or PEUC benefits before the state made a formal decision could get a waiver.
A claimant that got higher PUA benefits than they were eligible for would be eligible for a waiver, too, as could a claimant whose weekly benefits were miscalculated. And someone that submitted proof of income based on incorrect state instructions – like providing gross income instead of net income, or earnings from the incorrect year – could also get the waiver.
Fraudulently obtained benefits would not be eligible for the waiver.
“This is great news for tens of thousands of New Jerseyans who received these benefits believing they were entitled to them, but found out when federal guidance changed that they did not meet the eligibility standards,” Asaro-Angelo said on Tuesday.
New Jersey lawmakers are having another go at a proposal to use the state’s COVID-relief funds from the White House to refill its unemployment system, drained during the pandemic, and stave off business tax increases.
Similar proposals gained traction last summer and during the lame duck voting session after the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development revealed that New Jersey businesses would have to pay $252 million starting last October to replenish the state’s unemployment trust fund.
The push comes as Gov. Phil Murphy and Democratic leadership vow to take on New Jersey’s notoriously high cost of living and doing business.
Murphy’s office declined to comment, while the Senate Democrats Office could not be reached for comment.
All told, the state received $6.4 billion under the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan, for which $700 million in spending was approved by lawmakers in November.
Greenwald
“As our state moves forward from the difficulties of the past few years, we must focus on making New Jersey a more affordable place for residents to start and maintain their small business enterprises,” reads a prepared Feb. 3 statement from the planned sponsor, Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, D-6th District.
Between March 2020 and September 2021, an estimated 1.6 million New Jerseyans filed for unemployment amid strict business restrictions to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control. Roughly $35 billion in unemployment benefits were paid out during the closures, of which $9 billion came from the state’s coffers, according to estimates from the Assembly Democrats Office.
As part of a law Murphy signed last January, the $252 million tax increase is the first of three; businesses will be socked with a $296.6 million increase later this year and another $336.4 million hike in 2023, the office added.
The proposed Assembly Bill 2152 would cap the tax hike in 2023 at the 2022 levels.
The state unemployment fund borrowed billions of dollars from the federal government to stay in the black – something 19 other states have done during the pandemic, according to a report from Stateline, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
A2152 also calls for using some of those funds to repay the debt rather than impose the tax increases on businesses.
“This legislation will provide meaningful relief for employers by keeping tax rates manageable so that they can invest in their businesses, hire more staff, and pay wages and benefits to their employees,” Greenwald continued.
Murphy has largely held off using the funds to that end, despite pressure from business groups, Republican lawmakers and some Democrats.
Then-Senate President Steve Sweeney at Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2021 Budget Address in Trenton on Feb. 25, 2020. – AARON HOUSTON
Other leaders like former Senate President Stephen Sweeney backed away from such proposals, saying there would not be enough federal money to both refill the unemployment fund and promote the state’s recovery.
“If we took every single dollar that we had to offset the unemployment, it wouldn’t have been enough,” he said in November.
“Do you use the dollars to try to improve the economy? Do you use the dollars to fix things that are broken in the state of New Jersey?” Sweeney continued. “It’s a tough position at the end of the day because there’s not enough money.”
Sixteen other states have tapped federal relief funds cover unemployment fund shortfalls, according to data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Tax Foundation notes that the ARP sets aside $94.7 billion for that purpose, and the nonprofit admonished states that have not taken that route.
Under the bill, the state Labor Department would prepare a report for lawmakers each year that includes what the state still owes to the federal government, how much money must be put into the unemployment trust fund by March 31 each year to avoid a tax increase, different employer cost estimates based on higher and lower payroll tax rates, and how long it would take for the state to lower those rates.
New Jersey’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession lagged behind most Mid-Atlantic states in 2021, despite leading the national average, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released Jan. 28.
Complicating New Jersey’s job rebounds was the omicron variant, which hit the nation in December and slowed job growth that month as the holiday shopping and travel season was in full swing.
The Jan. 28 figures come after Murphy, in his recent state of the state address, touted a “growing economy” coming out of the pandemic, and “real progress” on that front.
Gov. Phil Murphy at his second inaugural address at Trenton on Jan. 19, 2022. – TIM LARSEN, NJ GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
He pointed to a recent federal analysis that showed New Jersey’s quarterly gross domestic product placed the state in the top five for growth compared to the same quarter last year. Republicans accused the governor of cherry picking figures for his address, though such practices are hardly unique to any particular governor, top elected official, or political party.
Meanwhile, New Jersey’s infamously high cost of living has been an albatross around Democrat’s necks.
The perceived lack of focus on the matter has been blamed for the party losing seven seats in the state Legislature last November, and for nearly costing Gov. Phil Murphy his re-election.
Property taxes hit a new high in 2021, and are among the highest in the nation. Other Garden State taxes also rank high in the U.S., such as the “millionaire’s tax” on income above $1 million and a top corporate tax rate of 11.5%.
Economic recovery has lagged, and the New Jersey Treasury Department warns that the state’s good fortunes in its coffers could begin to run low beginning this spring.
State leaders are vowing to take on these issues in the Legislature’s and Murphy’s new term.
Sluggish numbers
Friday’s numbers showed the state’s coincident index – which combines figures like the number of jobs added and the unemployment rate – grew 6.6% over the past 12 months, as of December 2021. The national average was 6%.
Maryland’s average over the past year was 8.9%, New York’s was 8.7% and Pennsylvania’s was 7.3%. Only one state in the region – Delaware – was behind New Jersey, with a 5.1% growth in 2021.
“New Jersey’s economy is a mixed bag,” said Robert Scott, an economist with Monmouth University in West Long Branch.
Certain figures such as lower poverty rates, growth in the state’s gross domestic product, and the presence of such industries as finance and pharmaceuticals, “which have fared well during COVID,” were promising for the Garden State, he noted.
But the cost of living has been notoriously high, while the jobless rate has declined at a rate much slower than the rest of the country, Scott continued.
Jobs rebounds in certain industries – such as leisure and hospitality – came as the holidays approached, but hiring still slowed in December, noted Siddiq Ahmed, an economist with Moody’s Analytics.
New Jersey’s employment levels rose in the last three months of 2021 and led the pack in the region, but were still below that of February 2020, before the enactment of stringent business lockdowns that came the next month, the Friday report notes.
Unemployment fell in November to below 7% for the first time during the pandemic, but is still far above the 3.8% seen in February 2020. It was 6.3% in December–the third highest in the nation.
Data from December showed a “clear slowdown in hiring from the prior month, which coincided with the omicron outbreak,” Ahmed said. “The slowdown was more pronounced in New Jersey compared to the national average and some other regional states such as Pennsylvania and Maryland.”
Other customer-facing jobs such as transportation and warehousing also took hits in December, he added.
Editor’s note: Robert Scott was misidentified in an earlier version of this story.
New Jersey is asking Congress to forgive more than 130,000 people in the state who have been told they were overpaid in unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
State labor officials estimate that as many as 250,000 New Jerseyans could be affected, having received payments for unemployment benefits for which they were no longer eligible after federal rules changes. Officials are asking Congress to waive those charges as long as the payments were not fraudulent.
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo signed onto a Jan. 7 letter written by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies – a nonprofit representing all 50 state labor departments – asking Congress for the forgiveness. It’s addressed to Republican and Democratic leadership in both chambers.
New Jersey Commissioner for the Department of Labor and Workforce Development Robert Asaro-Angelo at Gov. Phil Murphy’s daily COVID-19 press briefing at the War Memorial in Trenton on May 21, 2020. – RICH HUNDLEY, THE TRENTONIAN
“Millions of unemployed workers deemed eligible for federal pandemic unemployment benefits later found out that the rules had changed, and, through no fault of their own, were no longer considered eligible – months after they had spent the money on necessities like food and housing,” reads a prepared Jan. 25 statement from Asaro-Angelo.
The pandemic business closures of March and April 2020 triggered record-high jobless claims and unemployment, reaching as high as 16.6% in July that year.
Businesses such as malls, restaurants, casinos, bars, retail, theaters, entertainment venues, gyms, barbershops and salons all had to shutter their doors for months on end, and then operate at reduced capacity. In response, Congress approved a slew of expanded unemployment benefits to help many Americans affected by the closures maintain some type of income and put food on the table.
That meant unemployment benefits for those not typically eligible–such as freelance workers, gig workers and the self-employed.
“To try to recover these funds after the fact stresses these workers and their families, strains the system of resources with little chance of success, and is counterintuitive to our mission of helping people in their time of need,” the New Jersey labor commissioner said.
Rules gradually changed since that first round of federal relief in March 2020, the NJDOL noted. For example, claimants were no longer able to self-certify their income and employment history, but instead had to provide documentation.
NASWA noted in its letter that while some states have a waiver process, congressional-level action would be the most effective way to “prevent further hardships on these individuals.”
“The likelihood of recovering these funds is low and the cost of states’ efforts to secure repayment far outweighs any monetary returns,” the letter continues.
New Jersey’s December unemployment rate dipped from 6.7% to 6.3% amid the holiday shopping and travel season, compared to the national average unemployment rate of 3.9% for that same month, according to the latest state and federal labor data.
While business closures and restrictions slowed the spread of the COVID-19 virus at its onset, the moves drove the unemployment rate to a record 16.6% in April 2020–up from 3.8% in March before the effects of the pandemic fully took hold of daily life.
“When you look at the U.S. average, it’s definitely behind,” said Doug Offerman, an analyst with the Wall Street rating agency Fitch Ratings. “But I think when you look at the figures from month to month you see that progress is being made.”
“They’re making slow and steady headway – would be my takeaway,” he said.
When you look at the U.S. average, it’s definitely behind. But I think when you look at the figures from month to month you see that progress is being made.
— Doug Offerman, analyst, Fitch Ratings
The numbers mark a contrast to the rosier picture the Murphy administration has painted of the state’s economic performance over the past four years and coming out of the COVID-19 recession.
During his State of the State address on Jan. 11, Gov. Phil Murphy touted a metric that suggested a definitive economic rebound: A federal analysis of New Jersey’s quarterly gross domestic product placed the state in the top five for growth compared to the same quarter last year.
As of December, the state regained 561,200 – or 78% – of jobs lost during the March and April 2020 closures. In November, that figure was 76%, which Fitch noted was “below the nation’s 82% recovery.” The average for all the states combined, as of November, was 77%, Offerman noted.
“Job losses in New Jersey, as in other states, have disproportionately affected lower-wage workers, and the job recovery for these workers has been particularly slow,” Fitch continued in its Jan. 11 report.
The state has paid out an estimated $37 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits, and to many groups not typically eligible for jobless relief such as freelancers.
In November, the state’s jobless rate fell below 7% for the first time in the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping to 6.7%.
Data show that the state added just 10,100 jobs in December 2021, compared to a net gain of nearly 26,000 jobs in November. The biggest gains in December were in leisure and hospitality, which added 3,800 jobs, followed by manufacturing, which grew by 2,700 jobs; construction, which grew by 1,900 jobs; and education and health services, which grew by 600 jobs.
Other services – those that don’t fall under the labor department’s defined categories – added 600 jobs. Financial activities added 500 jobs; trade, transportation and utilities added 100 jobs, as did professional and business services.
The information sector lost 900 jobs.
Many businesses – especially in the lower-paying jobs – have lamented their inability to lure workers, hampering their recovery from the pandemic. Dining, retail, hotels, leisure, entertainment and hospitality businesses said they were hit the hardest.
Tom Bracken, president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said that the state can add funds to the Return & Earn program, under which it provides subsidies for $500 hiring bonuses and for up to $10,000 in training wages for new hires entering a different industry.
Business owners told NJBIZ last year that they were skeptical that the added subsidies could turn the tide for many of their hiring woes. The initial hope last summer was that the end of the $300 per week federal unemployment subsidy would trigger a surge of job applicants, but such a scenario never came to pass.
New Jersey’s aging unemployment system was pushed beyond the limit over the past two years, with many in the state facing dragged out delays in payments, technical and bureaucratic snags, and the inability to have their issues resolved.
Starting in early 2022, New Jersey is one of two states – the other being Arkansas – that will take part in a federal pilot program to upgrade its unemployment infrastructure, the state Department of Labor announced on Dec. 14.
The new program is called the Claimant Experience Pilot, under which the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development would design a system that “provides equitable and timely access to unemployment benefits,” while “rooting out identity theft and other fraud issues” that bogged down the state unemployment system and held up thousands of applications.
Amid a slew of COVID-19 business restrictions put in place last year, and for half of 2021, that shut down the state economy, an estimated 2.4 million people filed for unemployment since March 2020.
Since then, nearly $37 billion in federal and state jobless benefits have been paid out to more than 1.5 million people employed in New Jersey. Unemployment surged to over 16% last year.
But applicants complained that they waited weeks or months for a single paycheck. Others saw their applications frozen or held in limbo, while some were wrongly told they were ineligible or were not able to get into the weekly certification system. Many had no means to get in touch with a live person at the call center to resolve their issues, or had to wait weeks or months to finally hear from someone.
The unemployment system was heavily-reliant on a decades-old computer mainframe called COBOL.
Gov. Phil Murphy, in a prepared statement issued Tuesday, said that the COVID-19 recession “shed light on the challenges and shortcomings of the federal unemployment system,” but that the pilot program would put the state “at the forefront of modernization, and permanent, meaningful reform.”
According to the New Jersey Labor Department, under the pilot program the state will work to create a “user-friendly entry to the system with an integrated identity verification component,” rather than have that be a separate step.
New Jersey Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo joins Gov. Phil Murphy at his daily COVID-19 press briefing in Trenton on June 11, 2020. – RICH HUNDLEY, THE TRENTONIAN
“No state was spared from the deluge of unemployment claims nor from the difficulties of implementing numerous new federal unemployment benefit programs created to assist workers during the COVID-19 pandemic,” reads a prepared statement from state Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo.
He said that while the state could indeed spend its own money to upgrade the unemployment system, the problem lies at the federal level, and the fact that each state has its own independent system. A single nationwide centralized system would go far to fix that issue, he told lawmakers in April.
Meanwhile the deluge of added federal benefits under the federal COVID-19 relief package, and its constantly changing rules – such as benefits for freelancers and gig workers, and extended benefits and added relief money each week – also put strain on the system.
“Our systems had to undergo significant changes with each new provision of the new federal pandemic relief laws, followed by new guidelines, processes, and retraining,” he added in April. “Often, what was true on Tuesday had been overwritten by new federal guidance by Friday.”
Labor officials meanwhile said that many of those delays were “often mistakenly attributed to computer system glitches,” when in reality they “most often occurred because of the web of complex federal laws and processes that require us to verify workers’ information, receive and review wage records – often from multiple parties and multiple states – verify identities, and make sure only those eligible for benefits receive them.”
“Despite all this, the overwhelming majority of unemployment insurance benefits filed in New Jersey are paid without issue or delay.”
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The state Legislature is making one final effort to use federal pandemic relief funds to refill the unemployment system and avoid tax increases on businesses.
Similar proposals gained traction over the summer, after the Department of Labor and Workforce Development revealed that New Jersey businesses would have to pay $252 million starting in October to replenish the state’s unemployment fund – the first of three such increases.
Time is short. The Legislature will meet this week and again next week ahead of Christmas, and for one week between the New Year’s holiday and the last voting day on Jan. 10.
An estimated $37 billion has been distributed to roughly 1.6 million New Jersey claimants, though only $9 billion has come from the state, according to the Assembly Democrats Office.
Under Assembly Bill 6227, the state would tap into its federal COVID-19 relief money — New Jersey received $6.2 billion under the American Rescue Plan — to repay the debt rather than impose tax increases on businesses.
Sixteen other states have tapped federal relief funds cover unemployment fund shortfalls, according to data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Tax Foundation notes that the ARP sets aside $94.7 billion for that purpose, and the nonprofit admonished states that have not taken that route.
Greenwald
Estimates from the Assembly Democrats Office, whose members are introducing the bill, suggest businesses will be hit by another $296.6 million of tax increases next year, and $336.4 million the year after.
“This legislation will do two things, the most important of which will be providing meaningful relief for employers by keeping tax rates manageable so that they can invest in their businesses, hire more staff, and pay wages and benefits,” Assembly Democratic Leader Lou Greenwald, D-6th District, said in a Dec. 10 statement. Greenwald is the primary sponsor of the measure.
“It will also promote fiscal responsibility by paying off our state’s debt so that we can begin to rebuild our UI fund and prepare for the future.”
Under the bill, the Labor Department would prepare a report for lawmakers each year that includes what the state still owes to the federal government, how much money must be put into the unemployment trust fund by March 31 each year to avoid a tax increase, different employer cost estimates based on higher and lower payroll tax rates, and how long it would take for the state to lower those rates.
Murphy approved a measure earlier this year to impose the tax increases over a three-year period. The governor and legislative leadership have not made clear whether they would sign on to such a proposal.
“It is a small saving grace that employers get to pay this added tax over three years, instead of paying all at once,” Bob Considine, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said in an August email. “But at the end of the day, this is a large tax not on income, profits or assets, but on actual jobs as employers desperately look to recover employees.”
But outgoing Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District suggested at an NJBIA event several weeks ago that there are not enough ARP funds to go around. “If we took every single dollar that we had to offset the unemployment, it wouldn’t have been enough,” Sweeney said during a Nov. 30 NJBIA event.
“Do you use the dollars to try to improve the economy? Do you use the dollars to fix things that are broken in the state of New Jersey?” Sweeney continued. “It’s a tough position at the end of the day because there’s not enough money.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story referenced a report from the Pew Research Center; that was incorrect, the report is from Stateline, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts. It was updated at 10:53 a.m. EST on Dec. 15, 2021.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]New Jersey is ending extended unemployment benefits for roughly 80,000 people as businesses across the state grapple with hiring shortages.
Many of those claimants have burned through the remaining 13 weeks of extended benefits, which kicked in after they used another 49 weeks of federal and state pandemic-relief unemployment assistance the week ending Sept. 4, according to a Dec. 9 statement from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
The federal jobless relief programs were enacted in March 2020, as the spread of COVID-19 pandemic prompted many states to completely shut down their economies.
Unemployment soared, and state labor officials estimate they’ve distributed $37 billion to more than 1.5 million recipients during the nearly two years of the pandemic. New Jersey still has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates, 7% as of October.
The state Labor Department is offering several return-to-work assistance programs, such as help with job searches, resume-writing, interviewing skills, and education and training.
“Our team now stands ready to help these workers re-enter the workforce by finding meaningful, dignified, sustained employment,” Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said in a statement.
Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo – RICH HUNDLEY, THE TRENTONIAN
Initial expectations in the spring and early summer were that once the federal $300 weekly unemployment relief checks ran out in early September, many people would return to the office, or to their retail, restaurant or other hospitality jobs. But the effect was muted at best.
A recent survey by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association found that 3 in 4 employers – 73% – have faced hiring shortages over the past year. Many reluctantly raised wages in order to attract workers.
Labor rights groups said they fear that the loss in benefits could be a blow for workers staying out of the workplace in search of higher pay, and better health and safety standards.
“The end of extended unemployment benefits won’t stop the spread or the virus or generate child care availability,” said Peter Chen, a policy analyst with the progressive think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective.
A Nov. 30 report by the U.S Chamber of Commerce found that 29% of workers have not returned to the office because of concerns about COVID-19, while 28% have prioritized their health over work and 26% said the wages in their industry were not high enough.
“People want to work. They just want compensation for their labor,” said Naomi R, Williams, a labor professor at Rutgers University. And the COVID-19 pandemic “laid bare” the reality of many working for wages and benefits that “do not provide for them and their families.”
“Workers are seeing companies bring in record profits, and yet they are still struggling to meet their family’s needs,” she said in an email.
Chen added that the loss of that income from the extended unemployment benefits “means families will have less to spend on groceries, rent, and basic needs that keep the economy moving.”
Angela Deli-Santi, a spokesperson for the state Labor Department, noted that the state still offers assistance with rent and heating bills and food.
Michele Siekerka, president and CEO of the NJBIA, said that the loss in some “discretionary spending” could mean a bump in state employment levels.
“However, it’s also clear there are numerous reasons why some people aren’t coming back to work – and those include childcare issues, the need for some workers to reskill, workers looking for change in direction in their careers, and remaining considerations about COVID,” she said in an email.
The U.S Chamber report found that 24% of workers and 32% of women cited child and dependent care as their main reason for not returning to work.
As of last month, the state awarded more than $500,000 to 60 separate businesses through the $10 million “Return and Earn” program, under which the state subsidizes $500 hiring bonuses to new workers, and up to $40,000 in training-wages for workers entering a new industry.
And the state is putting up $700 million to subsidize the child care industry and the cost for parents, as well as expanding a state tax credit program in which it essentially takes on the child care costs borne by parents so that they can return to work.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
New Jersey added 20,000 jobs back to its workforce in October, according to the Labor and Workforce Development Department’s monthly jobs report, as the state struggles to rebound from the COVID-19 recession amid months of hiring shortages.
The state added 21,500 jobs to the workforce in September – the first full month since the $300 in federal weekly unemployment relief expired – 20,300 jobs in August, and 14,600 jobs in September.
All told, the rebounds represent 512,900 jobs recovered since the COVID-19 business closures in March and April 2020, or 72%, according to figures gathered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and released by the New Jersey labor department.
The unemployment rate, which had dipped below pre-Recession levels just before the pandemic, finally stayed at 7.1% in October, having been above 7% for most of 2021.
Cruel summer
Since the summer, business owners, advocates and trade groups have complained of considerable hiring shortages – especially in the restaurant, retail, entertainment and hotel industries – which have hampered their pandemic-recoveries. The shortages were particularly painful for businesses along the Jersey Shore over the summer, typically a boom time for those regional operators.
Many business owners said they have had to cut hours, shut down portions of their operations, switch to just take-out in the case of restaurants, or close down entirely.
With holiday shopping season all but here, labor experts and economists have warned that the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors could face a major crunch because of the hiring shortages, as well as other factors such as shipping delays.
October’s figures showed that the professional and business services added 8,900 positions; trade, transportation and utilities added 4,000 positions; leisure and hospitality added 3,200 jobs; and construction added 2,700 jobs.
In a move designed to get people back to work, the state set aside $700 million to subsidize the child care industry. – DEPOSIT PHOTOS
The exact cause of the labor shortage has been heavily disputed. While many business heads pinned most of the blame on the weekly $300 as an incentive not to work, many others contend that a desire for career advancement, lack of access to child care, concerns about subpar working conditions, and shift in life priorities during the pandemic have played equally major roles.
Those employers with NJBIZ interviewed after the end of the weekly $300 said they haven’t fared well since the cut-off in finding new workers.
Last month, Gov. Phil Murphy introduced a $10 million pilot program to subsidize $500 hiring bonuses and $10,000 in training wages for workers switching into a new industry. While the bonuses have shown limited success, Murphy said he was confident that the addition of the training wages under the “Return and Earn” program would be enough to turn the tide of the labor shortage.
Many employers told NJBIZ they were pessimistic about their hiring prospects even with the program.
On top of that, the state is setting aside $700 million to subsidize its child care industry, which they argue is key to getting people back to work.
“There were announcements of programs made, but we don’t have transparency to where that money is out on the street yet,” Michele Siekerka, who heads the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, said of both programs in a brief interview with NJBIZ following a Nov. 16 panel at the annual New Jersey League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City.
Some of New Jersey’s residents hit worst by Tropical Storm Ida nearly three weeks ago can go to the state for jobless benefits, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced on Sept. 20.
The aid goes to the 12 counties declared disaster zones by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Ida’s wake: Bergen, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Union and Warren.
That comes on top of direct relief from FEMA for homeowners, and a slew of grants of loans available for renters, homeowners and business owners who saw considerable property damage from Ida.
The unemployment aid is called Disaster Unemployment Assistance and the deadline to file is Oct. 20. While it’s a federal aid program, DUA relief is still run by the state, as had been the case with several COVID-19 unemployment relief programs.
Gov. Phil Murphy; First Lady Tammy Murphy; and state, county and local officials meet with President Biden in Manville and the surrounding area in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ida on Sept. 7, 2021. – EDWIN J. TORRES/NJ GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
Someone not able to get to work because they would have needed to travel through an Ida-stricken area would be eligible, as would anyone about to start a job, but was stopped from doing so because of the storm. Those who lost a family member from the storm and had to become the primary breadwinner would also be eligible for DUA relief, as well as someone injured by the storm and left unable to work.
An applicant has to show that they’re not eligible for regular unemployment benefits, and when filing online via MyUnemployment.nj.gov, need to cite “Impacted by Hurricane Ida” as their reason for being out of work. After that, the state labor department would contact them if they’re deemed not eligible for regular unemployment.
The applicant would have 21 days to submit proof of their employment, such as an income tax return, bank statements, pay stubs or work orders. If they do not submit that proof, then their benefits could be denied.
Aid lasts 26 weeks, the state Labor Department said. As for certifying that they’re looking for work – a requirement for unemployment aid – any recipient has eight weeks before they have a set return-to-work date.
In the case of self-employed applicants who do not plan on reopening their business, they need to apply for at least three jobs a week and offer contact info for those employers in their weekly certification.
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