NJDOL: Workers who've used up jobless aid to get 20 extra weeks.

Byline: Daniel J. Munoz

New Jersey residents who've burnt through their jobless benefits are now eligible for another 20 weeks of unemployment, the state's Labor Department announced. Before that, the state would only cover 39 weeks of aid.

The Wednesday expansion is part of a landmark 2019 law which dramatically ramps up the size of New Jersey's paid family leave and temporary disability insurance programs.

Those went into effect on July 1, and doubled paid family leave from six to 12 weeks. The announcement comes as the COVID-19 pandemic triggers record-high unemployment both in New Jersey and across the nation.

Under the unemployment expansion, workers are not required to do anything no new application for benefits instead they will be automatically enrolled, according to the state's Labor Department.

"New Jersey went from being at almost full employment last winter to double-digit unemployment almost overnight," Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said in a Wednesday statement."These triggers are put in place for just such eventualities so that claimants have access to an income safety net for an extended period of time during times of high unemployment."

New Jersey was able to begin offering these benefits because it met a federally-required threshold for a high unemployment rate, which hit 15.2 percent in May, the labor department said.Every state but South Dakota is offering these extensions.

During the Great Recession a decade ago often considered the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression New Jersey's unemployment peaked at 9.8 percent.

"The additional 20 weeks of benefits brings to 59 the maximum number of weeks an eligible claimant may receive in benefits at this time," reads the Labor Department's Wednesday...