TRENTON, N.J. – Governor Phil Murphy’s closure of New Jersey non-essential businesses continues to exact a disastrous toll on the state’s job market.
On Thursday, the N.J. Department of Labor reported that it had received 206,253 new unemployment claims for the calendar week ending March 28th, more than double the prior week’s claims total (155,815).
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The state’s two-week total is 362,000+ claims. For a little perspective, the entire population of Mercer County is 369,000.
Unsurprisingly, 16.5% of the news claims came from the extended food service industry.
Nationwide, COVID-19 jobs losses ticked northward by 6.6 million. The national total is approximately 10 million since the pandemic-related layoffs began.
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