Total initial claims rose in California the week of April 24, while continuing to drop in the rest of the US. The US total was the lowest since the PUA program began in May 2020. The California numbers were the third-lowest.

In California, initial claims processed in the regular program rose 3.6% compared to the prior week, while PUA claims dipped 1.1%. In the national totals, regular claims were down 1.6%, while PUA claims were down further by 8.7%. Combined, total claims processed were up 2.7% in California and fell 2.9% in the US numbers.

By industry, the largest number of initial claims (all programs) were filed by workers in Accommodation & Food Service (19.5%), Retail Trade (11.8%), Health Care & Social Assistance (9.7%), Administrative & Support & Waste Management Services (8.1%), and Construction (6.7%).

While the California numbers have been near level over the past 3 weeks, the rest of the states continued the downward trend that began in January.

In the most recent results for March, California tied with Connecticut and New Mexico 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.

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 and while substantial uncertainty remains in many districts over when and how they will reopen.

The most recent tier allocations for the week of April 27 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 89.2% of March’s unemployment, but 10.5% 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 continued reliance of many workers on unemployment benefits, although the governor recently announced his intention to remove the tiered system by June 15.

In the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control, California remained just above the US average in the share of vaccine doses being administered. Total additional vaccine supplies were near last week’s total at 3.5 million for the week (14.9% of the national gain), but the number of shots slowed 18% to 2.6 million (13.7% of the national total). As of midday April 29, a total of 30.9 million shots have been administered in the state covering 19.1 million people, or 48.2% of the population and 61.1% of the population age 18 and over. In all, 29.9% of the population (US 30.0%) and 38.3% of population 18 and over (US 38.4%) have been fully vaccinated.

The most current EDD backlog data indicates total backlogged claims rose 1.6% the week of April 24th, 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 the number of calls rose substantially over the prior weeks. On average—using total number of calls received and the number of calls answered by staff—the average caller put in 10.6 calls trying to reach EDD, up from 8.7 the week prior. Of the unique callers, 74% had their calls answered by staff (assuming one call answered per unique caller), down from 79%.

As an indicator of long-term unemployment in the state, payments for the extended benefit programs (PEUC and Fed Ed) were at 27.2% of the total for the week of April 14. While the share has eased from its high of 50.3% in March, a substantial share of those receiving unemployment benefits still face the risks of lifetime wage and income effects similar to those that afflicted the long-term unemployed coming out of the previous recession that began in 2008.

In the most recent data from EDD, California paid out a total of $140.1 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 $22.0 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.