Coronavirus unemployment: Pace of job losses slow in California, weekly total remains high
About 318,000
During the eight weeks since shelter-in-place and business shutdown orders began, 4.05 million
In
Over the four most recent weeks that ended on
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
"These are Depression-era numbers," Gov.
The surge in jobless claims has become an avalanche that has buried the unemployment insurance unit at the state's
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
"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
Morris-Aranda was told by the EDD representative that she would be receiving her state payments, the
"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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