Murphy: NJ unemployment insurance 'should' be fine, as long as feds help.

Byline: Daniel J. Munoz

Gov. Phil Murphy assured that the state's unemployment fund "should" be fine despite a massive surge in applicants in the wake of the COVID-19 economic crisis, as long as the federal government steps in.

New Jersey's unemployment fund clocks in at $2.4 billion as of Sunday, according to the labor department, and the federal government has roughly $200 billion that can be tapped into by states in scenarios where demand for insurance outstrips the supply.

"With the state's fund and federal money, that should be enough," the governor told reporters Tuesday at his daily press briefing on the pandemic.

Unemployment applications climbed in recent weeks, as the mass closure of tens of thousands of businesses force many people out of work.

There was a 20.6 percent spike in unemployment claims between March 2019 and March 2020, according to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

A bill sent to the governor's desk would expand the state's unemployment fund by $20 million to help workers who've lost their jobs during the pandemic, but it has not yet been signed.

Murphy and the state's congressional delegation have pushed for more federal stimulus money to flow to New Jersey, both to plug holes in its budget and help cover the exponential costs of containing the COVID-19 outbreak.

Last week, Murphy signed off on a letter with the governors of Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania pressing the Trump administration for a combined $100 billion bailout.New Jersey could need upwards of $20 billionfrom that money to plug holes in its own budget, Murphy said, as COVID-19 decimates commerce and the tax revenue on which the state budget relies.

The latest federal aid package agreed upon by Congress and U.S. President Donald Trump would clock in at $2 trillion, in an effort to keep money flowing through the market while businesses remain shuttered and millions of Americans go without work.

During the Great Recession, then-Gov. Jon Corzine and the state Legislature required $1 billion from the federal government in the form of a loan to shore up unemployment as the jobless rate soared.

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