The economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, with more than 600,000 people filing for first-time unemployment benefits across the tri-state area last week.

The New York State Department of Labor processed more than 369,000 initial unemployment applications in the week ended March 28, representing a 2,674% increase compared with the same week last year. Claims have skyrocketed across the state, most significantly in Long Island and western New York, where applications increased more than 3,300% compared with the same period last year. Across the country, a record 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week.

Leona Foxworth Photo: Leona Foxworth

Leona Foxworth, who lives in Astoria, Queens, started to cry as she discussed being laid off last week from her job as an executive assistant at a Manhattan church. “I absolutely loved my job, so it’s been a rough few days,” she said.

New York has struggled to process the flood of unemployment claims, with many laid-off workers unable to get through on the state’s website or by phone to complete their applications. To help manage the volume of applications, the labor department has added staff, extended hours and implemented a staggered application process that asks people to file claims on certain days of the week based on the first letter of their last names.

Ms. Foxworth, 37 years old, said she’s been trying to file for unemployment since Monday, but the application requires her to talk by phone with a claims specialist. She’s called hundreds of times a day without getting through.


“If I don’t get that unemployment, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said.

Under the new coronavirus stimulus package signed by President Trump, some workers may earn more money from unemployment benefits than what they earned before being laid off. WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains why that is the case. Photo: Anna Watts for The Wall Street Journal

In New Jersey, more than 206,000 people filed for unemployment for the first time last week, the state Department of Labor said. Restaurants and bars are the hardest-hit sectors, followed by doctors’ and dentists’ offices and administrative and support services, according to a state analysis of claims processed between March 15 and last Saturday.

New Jersey Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said the department is still waiting for federal guidance related to the expanded unemployment insurance included in the recently passed federal stimulus package. But he encouraged all laid-off workers to apply for the enhanced benefits, including freelancers, gig workers and independent contractors, who were previously ineligible.

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Mr. Asaro-Angelo said he expected the additional $600 weekly unemployment benefit, which will be given to laid-off workers under the new federal stimulus package, will be available and paid out to residents by the end of next week.


In Connecticut, more than 33,000 people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week. Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday the department is so overloaded with claims that there is a five-week delay in processing claims.

“We’re processing as fast as we can,” Mr. Lamont said.

Unemployment benefits are retroactive to the day employment was lost, so the delay won’t reduce the amount of money residents receive.

Write to Kate King at Kate.King@wsj.com