Coronavirus unemployment: Pace of job losses slow in California, weekly total remains high

Palo Alto Daily News (CA)

May 7--The pace of job losses in California has slowed for five consecutive weeks, yet the number of people filing for first-time unemployment claims remains at brutally high levels, the federal government reported Friday.

About 318,000 California workers filed initial claims for unemployment during the week that ended May 2, which was down slightly from the 325,000 who filed jobless claims for the week that ended April 25, the U.S. Labor Department reported.

During the eight weeks since shelter-in-place and business shutdown orders began, 4.05 million California workers have filed for unemployment, this news organization's analysis of the federal reports shows.

In the United States, 3.17 million workers filed first-time claims for unemployment last week, down 677,000 from the 3.85 million who filed first-time claims during the week that ended on April 25.

Over the four most recent weeks that ended on May 2, California's jobless claims averaged 1.83 million a week, while during the four weeks that ended on April 25, unemployment claims in this state averaged 2.43 million a week, a decrease of 600,000, or 24.7 percent. This benchmark is known as the four-week moving average.

Nevertheless, the current pace of unemployment claims is about 11 times greater than was the case for any four-week period in 2020 prior to the mid-March start of the business shutdowns that were ordered by state and local governments.

The scary levels of unemployment conjure up the prospect of jobless rates in the 20 percent range, which would be on the cusp of the 25 percent jobless levels that savaged the U.S. economy during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"These are Depression-era numbers," Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a news briefing on May 6 to discuss the coronavirus situation, referring to the pace of unemployment claims and job losses in California.

The surge in jobless claims has become an avalanche that has buried the unemployment insurance unit at the state's Employment Development Department. The requests from workers who have lost their jobs have paralyzed the EDD's call center and caused its computer system to freeze.

Dozens of jobless workers have told this news organization that they have been unable to reach the EDD phone system and that the computer network is hobbled by glitches and unresponsive pages and links.

"It is impossible to reach EDD at any of the telephone numbers provided, and at any time," said Vinod Gupta, a Fremont resident who has lost his job. "They keep giving you a run around from one number to another."

Monica Morris-Aranda, a San Jose resident, was finally able -- after one month of trying on a near-daily basis -- to reach the EDD at a phone number that normally isn't given out by the state labor agency.

"I had called and called for weeks and I finally talked to someone," Morris-Aranda said Thursday. "I felt like crying because I had been waiting for so long to hear from them."

She gave the EDD representative her social security number and other information, and the EDD staffer was able to locate her account.

The problem? In the computerized drop-down menu, Morris-Aranda was disqualified from her rightful receipt of jobless benefits because she checked that she wasn't looking for work at the moment. She wasn't looking because of the government's orders to shelter in place. The EDD representative said that checking the box as "not currently looking for work" was why Morris-Aranda didn't receive benefits.

This catch-22 created by the state of California may be causing widespread woes for workers who have lost their jobs due to the government-ordered shutdowns. Several other workers have told this news organization that they are concerned that by honestly telling the EDD that they weren't seeking employment that their payments have been aborted.

Morris-Aranda was told by the EDD representative that she would be receiving her state payments, the $600 additional weekly payment financed by the federal government, and back pay for the many weeks of delays.

"This has been incredibly frustrating, just horrible," Morris-Aranda said. "I hope to get caught up on bills. I'm still frantically checking the mail every day."

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