Backlog of state unemployment claims rises again.

After shrinking for one week, most recent report shows worsening logjam for unemployment benefits

The backlog of unemployment claims that state government officials have failed to pay to people who have lost their jobs in California is rising again, grim tidings for workers to ponder ahead of the Christmas holiday.

As of Dec. 16, an estimated 683,200 California workers were trapped in a bureaucratic limbo created by the state Employment Development Department, which has battled with uneven success to whittle away a mammoth backlog of unpaid jobless claims.

The most recently reported backlog is an increase of 12,500 compared with Dec. 9, when an estimated 670,700 California workers were stuck in the EDD’s logjam.

The overall backlog is made up of a combination of unpaid initial unemployment claims and unpaid continuing claims, according to statistics posted by the EDD.

The initial unemployment claims backlog totaled 370,300 as of Dec. 16, an increase of 13,800 from Dec. 9, the EDD reported.

The backlog for continuing unemployment claims totaled 312,900 on Dec. 16, which was a decrease of about 1,300 from the prior week.

During four of the five most recent weeks, the overall claims backlog has increased. That suggests the EDD is once again falling behind in keeping up with payments.

An unemployment claim ends up in the EDD backlog total if it falls into one of two categories: an initial claim that has taken more than 21 days to pay or be disqualified, or a continuing claim for which at least one payment has been made but it has taken more than 21 days for the EDD to make the next payment or disqualify the claimant.

Matters could soon deteriorate, multiple recent economic reports for the Bay Area and California show.

The job market has shown signs that it has stalled. State and local government agencies have

imposed a fresh round of severe business shutdowns, which could trigger higher layoffs.

An increase in unemployment could force people to file more claims for jobless benefits. That, in turn, could impede the EDD’s payment efforts and cause benefit payouts to lag badly.

In September, the EDD vowed to erase the backlog by January — but Jan. 31 is less than six weeks away. It wasn’t immediately clear how the EDD would keep its promise in light of the increase in the logjam.

This news organization has asked the EDD to discuss the current estimate as to when the backlog might vanish.

The agency took a twoweek pause in processing claims in late September so it could reduce the backlog. And for a while, that appeared to be a successful strategy.

For six consecutive weeks from early October to mid-November, the EDD reported that the number of unpaid claims had declined.

But starting on Nov. 18, the backlog of unpaid claims began to climb again and since then, the trend has been towards a steadily larger logjam.

Unemployed workers have continued to complain of a glitchy website and an unresponsive call center. Those complaints have continued despite the EDD adding hundreds of workers and new technology designed to automate and streamline the claims process.