“My phone was blowing up this morning. One claim — they’ve been waiting a year … I’m asking you to step up your game,” Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) lambasted New Jersey’s labor commissioner at a contentious committee hearing about the backlog in the state’s unemployment claims.
Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said the department currently has 10,800 backlogged claims and will open half of its 24 One-Stop Centers to process unemployment claims in person on March 28. It’s already making 15-minute appointments but will staff them with only a couple of workers each. Incredulous senators predicted mobs of desperate claimants could show up. “When you open in person you’re going to have to call in the National Guard,” one senator warned. And Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) asked whether Asaro-Angelo had a Plan B. When the commissioner said yes but refused to explain, Bucco retorted, “That’s unacceptable.”
