California jobless claim filings slow; expert says damage has ‘plateaued’

328,000 last week is 69% below all-time high of 1.06 million

“I’ve called every day. I’m calling all of their numbers. I filled out all the forms. I have sent them emails. I don’t know what is happening with my payment because the EDD won’t respond.”

The number of initial unemployment claims filed in California last week totaled 328,000, a rate seven times greater than a typical week in 2020 but far below the worst week since coronavirus- linked business shutdowns began, according to a new report released Thursday.

Last week’s claim totals are 69% below the all-time high of 1.06 million claims, a grim pinnacle reached during the week that ended March 28.

“The numbers are staggering. These are tough numbers,” said Dan Davenport, president of San Jose-based Randstad RiseSmart, an outplacement and talent mobility firm. “If there is a silver lining, it is the declining rate of job losses.”

Across the United States, initial claims totaled 3.84 million during the week that ended April 25, down from the 4.44 million claims filed in the week that ended April 18, the U. S. Labor Department reported.

“Thankfully, for now, the economic contagion seems to have plateaued,” said unemployment insurance expert Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow with the Century Foundation.

But the cumulative toll is huge. Over the most recent six weeks — since government- mandated business shutdowns began nationally — 30.3 million workers in the United States have filed initial unemployment claims.

In California, over the most recent eight weeks, 3.78 million workers — 19.6% of the workforce — have filed for unemployment. On Tuesday, gig workers, independent contractors and the self- employed were allowed to apply for benefits, so weekly claim totals could increase again.

Workers in unprecedented numbers have endured layoffs, lost hours and furloughs because state and local government agencies have ordered lockdowns of businesses in a quest to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Now, workers are scrambling to navigate the broken call centers and computer networks at the state Employment Development Department, which has been unable to keep up with the crush of jobless workers who

— Jennifer Leuchters, a Concord resident

have buried California’s labor agency beneath an avalanche of unemployment claims.

The state’s EDD made first-time payments to only 1 out of 8 California workers who filed initial unemployment claims during March, a federal report shows.

“The real question now is how many of these millions of workers flooding into state unemployment systems make it out to the other side with a payment,” Stettner said.

Some jobless workers in California have begun to blame the state government and its top administrators for being both the catalyst for the business shutdowns as well as the impediment to receiving unemployment payments.

Jennifer Leuchters, a Concord resident, recently was laid off from her fulltime job working in a Walnut Creek doctor’s office. In early April, Leuchters received a paper mail notice from the EDD that she could expect a weekly state unemployment payment of $225.

A month later, no money has arrived from the EDD.

“I’ve called every day. I’m calling all of their numbers,” Leuchters said. “I filled out all the forms. I have sent them emails. I don’t know what is happening with my payment because the EDD won’t respond.”

She just wants to get back to her job.

“Gov. Newsom won’t let us work, but they also won’t pay us our unemployment,” Leuchters said.

Experts agree the EDD has been overwhelmed.

“Clearly California and other states were not set up to support this unprecedented spike in volume,” Davenport said.

In a hopeful sign, the vast majority of people affected by the job cuts could be out of work only on a temporary basis, according to a report released Thursday by the California Policy Lab, a research group affiliated with academics from UC Berkeley and UCLA.

“Almost 90 percent of all initial unemployment insurance claimants during the surge of unemployment claims reported that they expect to be recalled to their previous employers,” the California Policy Lab report stated.

Veronica Martinez, a Richmond resident who was out of work for more than a month from her office job at Marin General Hospital, said she never heard back from the EDD during the entire time she was laid off.

“I am super frustrated with the EDD and I am really hurt by what they did to me,” Martinez said. “I still haven’t received any payment from the EDD.”

Good news for Martinez, however: When her boss in an office unit of the San Rafael hospital heard about Martinez’s plight, the supervisor restored Martinez’s hours. She resumed work on Wednesday after being out of work from March 25 through April 28.

“I was jumping for joy when I heard I could get my job back. It was a weight off my shoulders,” Martinez said. “But the EDD has been horrible.”