Continuing the high volatility of the past several weeks, total initial claims were down sharply in California during the week of April 10, while continuing the downward trend in the rest of the states that began in early March.

In California, initial claims processed in the regular program dropped 52.0% compared to the prior week, while PUA claims eased 10.9%. In the national totals, regular claims were down 20.0%, while PUA claims dropped 13.4%. Combined, total claims processed plunged 46.0% in California and 18.9% in the US numbers.

While remaining at an overall higher comparative level, the current results return California to a general downward trend similar to what is being experienced in the other states.

In the most recent results for February, California tied with Connecticut for the third-highest unemployment rate in the country, behind only Hawaii which is even more dependent on tourism-related employment, and New York which adopted lock-down strategies comparable to California’s. The results for March will be released on Friday.

These numbers only cover the officially unemployed and not workers who have left the labor force during the pandemic period including workers who have given up on trying to find a job, workers who are fearful of contracting the disease if they get a job, and parents who have had to quit their jobs to take care of their children while the California public schools have remained closed.

The most recent tier allocations for the week of April 10 from the Department of Public Health show continuing improvements in relieving restrictions to business activities and jobs. Counties in the second-lowest Tier 3 restrictions held 84.7% of February’s unemployment, but 15.3% remain within the second highest Tier 2. All counties remain under some level of restrictions which present barriers to the state’s economic recovery and the continued reliance of many workers on unemployment benefits, although the governor recently announced his intention to remove the tiered system by June 15 but with some as yet unspecified virus-related provisions.

In the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control, California remained near the US average in the share of vaccine doses being administered. Total vaccine supplies were up 3.6 million for the week (ahead of the other states at 13.3% of the national gain), while the number of shots administered were up 2.4 million (in line with the state’s population share at 12.5% of the national total). As of midday April 15, a total of 24.2 million shots have been administered in the state covering 16.1 million people, or 40.8% of the population and 52.2% of the population age 18 and over.

The most current EDD backlog data indicates total backlogged claims were largely unchanged for the week of April 10, with the total still exceeding 1 million. Backlogged claims are defined as those awaiting action for 21 days or longer.

The related call center data indicates that on average—using total number of calls received and the number of calls answered by staff—the average caller put in 10.8 calls trying to reach EDD, down from 14.8 the week prior. Of the unique callers, 78% had their calls answered by staff, up from 62% .

The rise in newly unemployed over the past few weeks continues to shift the distribution by the length of unemployment. Long-term unemployment indicated by this data remains high, with payments for the extended benefit programs (PEUC and Fed Ed) at 40.8% of the total for the week of April 10.

In the most recent data from EDD, California paid out a total of $137.2 billion in benefits under all the UI programs since the week of March 7, 2020.

The most current estimate is that up to $31 billion of unemployment benefits was paid out to fraudulent claims, consisting of $11 billion in known fraud and up to $20 billion in suspected fraud.

The most recent data from the US Department of Labor indicates California’s outstanding loans from the Federal Unemployment Account were $21.8 billion, or 40% of the total amount owed by 19 states and 1 territory. On average, California’s UI debt has been increasing by $1.3 billion a month since the fall.