Jobless claims up as slump persists
California bucks national trend, which saw filings fall by 14,000
Unemployment claims climbed higher in California last week, the government reported Thursday, renewed evidence that the statewide economy has yet to ward off its coronavirus-linked 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 still accounts for an outsized amount of the claims being filed nationwide, though.
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.
Other indicators have emerged that suggest the jobless filings are part of a lingering economic slump.
“Job postings in California this past week lag the national numbers,” said Michael Bernick, an employment attorney with law firm Duane Morris and a former director of the
state Employment Development Department. “Nationwide, job postings for the week ending October 29 were down 11.2% compared to the pre-pandemic month of January 2020. In California for the same period job postings were down 15.1%.”