Initial claims for the week of November 21 saw a continued rise, with total claims increasing about the same in California and in the national numbers. In California, initial claims in the regular program were up 5.8% and PUA claims up 9.5%. Nationally, regular program claims were up more strongly at 10.5% but were offset somewhat by a 2.5% decline in PUA claims. Combined, total initial claims rose 6.4% in the state and 6.6% in the US. 

The November 21 numbers reflect a continuing shift away from the previous stabilizing picture in California and the slow decline seen on the national level. The comparative performance also shows a slight increase in the gap between California and the other states, a trend that is likely to continue in subsequent weeks as a result of the governor’s tightening of restrictions on business operations in most of the counties.

While the prior week backlog reports from EDD showed substantial progress in reducing the processing backlogs, the most recent report for the week ending November 18 shows none. The backlog for continued claims processing was essentially unchanged. The backlog numbers for initial claims increased by nearly half. 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.”

The recently discovered fraud involving payments to state prison inmates is unlikely to change the backlog numbers in any meaningful way as this article reported that “A "strike team" appointed by Newsom this year found that nearly all of the claimants flagged for further verification were legitimate, while fraudsters sailed through the automated system."