The number of new unemployment applications in New Jersey decreased last week with about 16,000 people filing claims.

That's a 41% drop from the previous week. That's the lowest weekly total in the past five months.

More than $13.2 billion has now been distributed to workers in the state over the past 20 weeks.

Nationwide 1.2 million Americans applied for unmployment benefits last week. That's down 249,000 from the week before, making it the lowest total since March.

However, it's the 20th straight week that at least 1 million people have sought unemployment.