New Jersey Unemployment Claims Surge As COVID-19 Closures Continue

Before restaurants were ordered to stop seating customers or casinos and gyms were mandated to turn off their lights, people in New Jersey were already flocking to file unemployment claims in the early fallout of the coronavirus outbreak.

More than 9,400 claims were filed the week ending March 14 -- a 20 percent increase over the same period from last year.

"We are still in the first phase where everything is unraveling," said Luis Portes, an economics professor at Montclair State University. "Leisure industry, the travel industry are in the front lines and the spill over effect of those sectors into the rest of the economy might be coming after."

He says unemployment will escalate as more and more workers are laid off.