Initial claims for the week of November 14 were up, with total claims rising about the same in California and the US as a whole. Total initial claims in California rose 4.4% with initial claims in the regular program largely unchanged at a rise of only 0.4% but PUA claims up 26.3%. Nationally, regular program claims were up 2.5% and PUA claims up 8.1%. Combined, total initial claims rose 4.4% in the state and 4.1% in the US.

The most recent numbers reverse the largely stabilizing picture in California and the previous slow decline at the national level. With an upsurge in cases being reported nationally and the governor’s decision to impose yet another round of closures in many counties, these reversals are likely to take stronger hold in the weeks to come. During the week of November 9, the number of counties in the two most restrictive tiers increased from 30 to 34. That same week, the most recent Small Business Pulse Survey results show 2.1% of small businesses in California closed a location temporarily (vs. 2.1% nationally), 2.3% closed a location permanently (vs. 1.4%), and 2.3% had closed their entire business (vs. 1.8%).

The most recent backlog reports from EDD show substantial performance improvements from prior weeks. At the current reduction rates, both the initial claims and continuing claims backlogs would be eliminated in under a month. Backlogged initial claims are defined as those “applications for benefits that take more than 21 days to issue a first payment or to disqualify the individual, regardless of if the claimant or EDD need to take some kind of action.” Backlogged continuing claims are defined as a “subset of all individuals who received at least one payment and are now waiting more than 21 days for further processing of payment or disqualification.”