More than 70,000 new New Jersey workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, as the state Department of Labor continued to struggle to keep up with the onslaught of new claims over six weeks of aggressive social distancing and business closures.

Between mid-March and April 25, a total of 930,000 workers in the Garden State filed jobless claims, with hundreds of thousands still anxiously waiting to receive benefits and many others gummed up with the online application.

The 71,966 claims in the week ending April 25 is the lowest weekly total since early March and about half the number of new claims filed in the each of the previous two weeks, according to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. New claims in a single week peaked the week ending April 4 at about 215,000 before dropping to 141,000 new claims the week ending April 11 and 140,000 the week ending April 18.

New unemployment claims are one of the earliest and clearest barometers of the coronavirus’s economic toll. This latest report comes as at least 6,770 people have died and 116,264 people have tested positive for the coronavirus statewide.

Still, the actual number of people out of work is likely much higher, as unemployment claims data do not include workers who are not eligible for jobless benefits or who have run into roadblocks in their applications.

The state Labor Department is paying benefits to 622,000 workers, who have received $1.4 billion — $727 million from the state and $690 million in federal assistance — since the start of the pandemic, it announced Thursday.

Nationally, 3.8 million more workers filed jobless claims, bringing the number of U.S. workers applying for benefits over six weeks to more than 30 million, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Julia Pollak, a labor economist with the jobs website ZipRecruiter, said the total unemployment both nationally and in New Jersey will take a long time to come back from. Nationwide, the U.S. tends to add a little more than 2 million jobs to the labor market each year, meaning the 3.8 million jobs lost due to COVID-19 last week is wiping out past gains.

On top of that, many of the job losses could be permanent due to businesses closing down.

“We will see permanent job loss due to permanent closures,” she said. “What worries me is that COVID-19 is causing permanent changes in businesses.”

Additionally, due to backlogs in unemployment systems, New Jersey and other states could continue to see more unemployment claims, even as Murphy begins contemplating re-opening parts of the state. And when unemployment insurance funds end for workers, the labor market could see a glut of job seekers and few available jobs.

“When the labor market is loose like that, employers can be picky,” Pollak said. “It’s staggering how many problems this crisis is causing.”

Calls for Murphy to loosen restrictions on business operations are intensifying. A half dozen state senators pressed the governor to allow “low-risk businesses and industries” to reopen with social distancing protocols.

Murphy has allowed such essential businesses as restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores to remain open as long as they operate at half capacity and customers stay six feet away from each other while wearing face coverings, and lawmakers argue other businesses could follow similar rules.

On Wednesday, Murphy lifted closures of parks and golf courses, effective Saturday, provided they mind social distancing restrictions.

New Jersey workers are eligible for 60 percent of their wages, up to $713, for no more than 26 weeks. Recipients began receiving $600 in additional Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments from the federal coronavirus stimulus last week.

Murphy announced Wednesday that gig and self-employed workers who are not eligible for state unemployment benefits will learn this week if they qualify for assistance under the federal CARES Act. Payments are scheduled to begin next week.

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Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com.

J. Dale Shoemaker may be reached at jshoemaker@njadvancemedia.com.