Unemployment claims in California resumed their dreary upward march last week, and since coronavirus-linked business shutdowns began in mid-March, a shocking 8.8 million workers in the state have filed for jobless benefits, the government reported Thursday.
An estimated 230,400 workers in California filed for unemployment benefits during the week that ended on Sept. 19, which was 4,000 more than the 226,000 who filed jobless claims in the week ending on Sept. 12, the U.S. Labor Department reported. The Sept. 19 unemployment numbers showed an increase because the Sept. 12 numbers were revised downward.
The huge numbers of unemployment claims have arrived at a time when the state’s Employment Development Department is preparing to halt for two weeks the processing of new claims until the tottering agency can chip away at a mountain of unpaid benefits that the EDD has failed to pay.
