unemployment

The EDD is getting a rebuild from the likes of Salesforce and Amazon as pandemic payment disputes drag on and fraud hits other state benefit systems. Workers, advocates and tech experts are hopeful, but wary.

Scammers pulled off one of the biggest suspected frauds in U.S. history while laid-off workers scrambled to survive. A CalMatters investigation finds that the EDD missed red flags and failed to make long-promised changes before the pandemic — and that once the twin crises hit, the state and its top contractors kept making money but were slow to deliver relief.

The state’s unemployment insurance debt, which ballooned as a result of the pandemic, is in dire straits with no clear path forward.

The recent squabble between Gov. Gavin Newsom and union leaders over unemployment insurance for striking workers renewed attention on the insolvent system that administers benefits.

Newsom announced on Saturday he vetoed two labor measures, one that would have given strikers unemployment benefits and another that would have made domestic work safer.

A bill that would extend unemployment benefits to workers on a strike exceeding two weeks is awaiting a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom. A Hollywood writer argues that striking workers deserve benefits from a fund their labor helps support.

California's beleaguered Employment Development Department could be asked to dole out benefits to striking workers if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill providing them the right. Critics say the EDD has enough problems to address before the next economic downturn.

The harsh reality is that California's Employment Development Department botched the management of unemployment insurance for jobless workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed massive fraud in the dispersal of federal benefits, and still hasn't fixed its problems.

California has spent more than $600 million over the past decade to house and rehabilitate parolees in the state’s single-largest reentry program for former prisoners. After all that money, state officials can’t say whether those services were effective in preventing future crime. That’s because the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has not tracked whether […]

Scheduling note: WhatMatters will observe the Juneteenth holiday on Monday and be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. From CalMatters politics reporter Alexei Koseff: As legislative leaders continue to negotiate a budget deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom ahead of the start of the fiscal year on July 1, expansive “trailer bills” proposed by the governor […]