Official Site of The State of New Jersey

October 16, 2025

TRENTON – The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) announced today that the release of September’s monthly employment report is on hold due to the ongoing federal government shutdown. 

The report relies on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a federal agency currently impacted by the shutdown. With BLS operations paused, New Jersey and other states are unable to access the data required to produce monthly employment and labor force estimates. NJDOL will resume publishing monthly employment reports as soon as federal data collection resumes. 

Until then, the Department continues to provide weekly unemployment insurance (UI) data.  

For the week ending October 11, New Jersey reported initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits totaled 8,968 for the week ending October 11, an increase of 1.5 percent compared to the previous week's total of 8,836. UI initial claims for the comparable week last year totaled 9,252. 

Continued claims, which represent weeks of benefits claimed by individuals approved for UI, totaled 90,524 for the week ending October 11, 2.0 percent greater than the prior week, and essentially the same total as the comparable week last year. 

The Department is firmly committed to delivering timely and accurate updates on the state’s labor market and will promptly share new information as it becomes available. 

This unemployment data does not include those federal employees who have applied for unemployment insurance benefits as a result of recent furloughs. Since the start of the shutdown on October 1, 2025, the Department has received over 900 UI claims from impacted federal workers. 

Federal workers seeking unemployment information should go to MyUnemployment.nj.gov/federal.  

For more information on available digital career resources, visit NJ’s premier career information portal at MyCareer.nj,gov.

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