Hope for NJ’s Long-Term Unemployed [AUDIO]

Approximately 79,000 New Jersey residents who had been collecting long-term unemployment benefits have now been cut off, because the federal emergency jobless program has run out of money.

State officials acknowledge this is a very difficult situation, but they say the local job market is getting stronger.

"The state has a special website to help the unemployed get help with training and job searches, at Jobs4Jersey.com," said Hal Wirths, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. "At any given time we have over 200,000 openings on there, and that will actually help you write a resume."

Wirths said if you already have a polished resume, you can download it to the site.

"It actually emails the jobs to the applicants, and employers can post the jobs on there," Wirths said.

Also on the website, there is information about the Jersey Job Clubs program.

"There are different clubs around the state," Wirths said, "where people come in and they get everything from interviewing tips, to motivational speakers, how to write a resume, how to prepare a resume."

Wirths believes the Garden State job market is showing definite improvement.

"Last month was the biggest drop in the unemployment since New Jersey has been keeping records," Wirths said. "For the year we've created over 70,000; the majority of those, 64,000, were in the private sector jobs. I'd encourage those folks to go onto Jobs4Jersey and check the Jersey Job Clubs, and just go out and be as active as possible."