State jobless claims rise once again, COVID-19 employment slump persists

Unemployment claims hopped higher in California last week, the government reported Thursday, renewed evidence that the statewide economy has yet to ward off its coronaviruslinked maladies.

California workers filed 62,266 initial claims for unemployment benefits during the week that ended on Oct. 30, up about 2,500 from from the week before, the U.S. Labor Department reported.

Nationwide, workers filed 269,000 first-time jobless claims last week, a decrease of 14,000 from the prior week, according to the Labor Department. These numbers were adjusted for seasonal volatility.

The unemployment claims that were filed last week in California continue to be far higher than what’s normal in a healthy economy.

In January 2020 and February 2020, the final two months before the government launched business shutdowns as a way to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, unemployment claims averaged 44,800 a week in California.

The most recent total is 39% higher than those first two months of 2020.

The one bright spot: For the last five weeks in a row, California’s unemployment claims have remained well below the spike in filings that occurred on Sept. 25, a week when claims totaled approximately 78,700.

California, however, still accounts for an outsized amount of the claims being filed nationwide.

Using comparable numbers that weren’t adjusted for seasonal variations, California last week produced a staggering 26% of all the unemployment claims that were filed nationwide, even though the Golden State accounts for only 11.7% of the nationwide labor pool.