Initial claims for the week of December 12 remained high as the current round of new restrictions again reversed business and jobs reopenings. California saw a sharp increase, while the rest of country had a slight easing in the number of new claims, although they remained high compared to historic levels.

In California, initial claims in the regular program rose 13.4% over the prior week, compared to a dip of 2.2% for the US overall. The PUA numbers appear to have been misreported to the Department of Labor and cover the prior two-week rather than the current two-week reporting period. Based on the published numbers, however, PUA claims rose 43.0% in the state and 9.6% for the US. Combined, total claims in the published numbers rose 18.1% in California and 9.6% in the US. These numbers, however, are likely to be revised in next week’s report.

The relative level of initial claims within the state remain above the rest of the nation, with the latest week’s results widening the gap.

The most recent backlog reports from EDD indicate the previous two-week rise in the backlog has at least been stabilized at the higher levels. The backlog in initial claims as of December 11 was down 2% from the numbers 9 days prior. The continuing claims backlog was down 13%. Note, however, that these latest reports again shift the reporting frequency, and the charts below extrapolate for the absence of data for December 3 and 4. 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.”