🐁🧮New Jersey Partners With US Department of Labor And US Digital Service For Unemployment Insurance Pilot Program
Time will tell how this USDOL-USDS pilot benefits or harms the unemployment insurance (UI) system, the labor market, the economy, and ultimately the American people. In the immediate term, WANJ is wondering about the identity verification part of the system. Since New Jerseyans have been selected to act as lab rats, how will this sensitive data be secured, handled, and otherwise utilized by the federal and state governments and private sector stakeholders?
The March 2020 lockdown of the Garden State economy by Gov. Phil Murphy set off a chain of events which led to a catastrophic overload of NJ's unemployment system resulting in countless cases of individuals waiting weeks or even months to receive payments.
In March 2021 NJ legislators held an independent hearing to discuss problems with the system. They listened to the personal experiences of several New Jerseyans who had difficulties collecting benefits during the pandemic. One of the topics explored with the help of an expert was the NJ Department of Labor (NJDOL) IT infrastructure.
Since the time of this independent hearing there has been little public discussion of the Murphy administration's plans for making improvements and upgrades to the state’s UI system.
The December 14, 2021 announcement of New Jersey's selection for the federal pilot program explains why there has seemingly been little movement by state government to address the problems locally. Research in preparation for this post suggests that some aspects of this modular system were set in motion several months ago by NJDOL. Pay attention.
WANJ will be watching for developments regarding this pilot program. Don't miss a post by a signing up for our Substack newsletter. You can also find us on Telegram @wearenewjersey.