Coronavirus unemployment: Nearly 4 million Californians are out of work, governor says

San Jose Mercury News (CA)

May 1--Nearly 4 million California workers have filed for unemployment in California over the last seven weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom estimated on Friday, a shocking milestone that underscores the extent to which the coronavirus has infected the state's feeble economy.

An avalanche of claims for jobless benefits has buried the state's Employment Development Department and overwhelmed the EDD's broken call center and clunky computer system, and the governor acknowledged during a regular news briefing regarding California's war against the deadly bug that the EDD's response must improve.

"Some of you who have called are deeply frustrated," Gov. Newsom said Friday, referring to the EDD's mishaps in handling jobless claims.

A growing number of workers have told this news organization of their inability to navigate the byzantine unemployment claims processing system being operated by the state government.

All told, 3.9 million people have filed for unemployment benefits since March 12, Newsom estimated. The state has paid out a jaw-dropping $7.5 billion in unemployment claims during those roughly seven weeks.

During March, California completed first payments to only one out of every eight workers who filed initial claims for unemployment -- a pace that badly lags the one out of every five workers in the state who have filed for unemployment.

The 3.9 million jobless claims mean that almost exactly 20 percent of California's 19.3 million workers have filed for unemployment since March 12.

"I have had zero success in processing a claim," Barbara Jordan, an Orinda resident, said in an email sent to this news organization Friday. "I have been out of work since March 15." Jordan had been working at a transportation company that provides mobility to the elderly.

Numerous unemployed workers believe the EDD system has failed them, according to a number of interviews by this news organization of people who have lost their jobs this year due to the coronavirus.

The governor said progress is being made to bolster the EDD's faltering efforts.

"We are sort of holding our own and pushing back against the tide of understandable and legitimate frustration that we have a responsibility to address," Gov. Newsom said.

Weeks ago, Gov. Newsom vowed that the goal would be to ensure that all claims would be processed by the EDD within 21 days when the unemployment application was made.

On Friday, however, the governor's statements seemed to not be quite as definitive.

"We are still mostly in that 21-day period for the millions of people to whom we are distributing money," Newsom said.

Nevertheless, Newsom said more improvements will be necessary to put a dent in the current performance flaws at the EDD.

"We recognize we have more work to do," the governor said.

When the first wave of the tsunami of jobless workers swamped the EDD, the state labor agency had about 740 people working in the unemployment insurance unit.

Alarmed by the EDD's inability to handle the flood of claims, the governor and state Labor Secretary Julie Su orchestrated the redeployment of 600 state workers a few weeks ago from other departments to pump up the EDD call center staffing. This week, Newsom said another 600 state workers were shifted to the EDD unit, and are undergoing retraining.

Yet for many workers, their time of unemployment without any payments from the EDD is approaching the two-month mark.

"I've been out of work since March 15," Jordan said. "I have tried my best to contact, email, phone so many different numbers. I have been listening to phone recordings ad nauseam. I can't even get through."

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