Unemployment

Workers denied pandemic-era jobless benefits are still struggling with debt and stress — collateral damage as they fight a state employment agency on edge about fraud and an appeals system facing a 'historic' backlog. What happens next with these and other legal battles will help decide who pays for a multi-billion-dollar debacle three years in the making.

Many Californians who lost jobs during the pandemic have been facing ongoing battles to receive unemployment benefits. During the first few months of the COVID shutdown, the state Employment Development Department became inundated with 29 million jobless claims. Since then, it has paid out $188 billion in unemployment benefits. But as CalMatters’ investigative reporter Lauren […]

A new state law aims to ensure workers with disabilities earn at least minimum wage. But some worry that the state doesn’t have enough resources to help these workers compete for jobs.

If you’re the author or supporter of a bill before the California Legislature, this is one list you dread: While getting sent to the “suspense file” doesn’t seal a measure’s fate, it does put it at some risk of being killed for the year.  Leading up to the big suspense file decision day next week, […]

January’s rains flooded farm fields and orchards. Many California farmworkers lost weeks of pay. Advocates say the state should help them weather such crises. A leading proposal would pay $300 a week to undocumented workers.

A dispatch from CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn: UC striking workers are facing a high-stakes game of Deal or No Deal. Friday evening, the University of California and the negotiating team representing 36,000  striking academic workers approved a tentative agreement to end the five-week work stoppage — thought to be the largest-ever labor action […]

When it comes to California’s economy, the numbers tell wildly different and seemingly incompatible stories — leading to competing narratives ahead of the Nov. 8 election as residents identify jobs, the economy and inflation as the top issues facing the state. Take GDP: On the one hand, Gov. Gavin Newsom is trumpeting a Bloomberg opinion […]

The state agency that handles unemployment benefits pursued lowering costs and hindering fraud over making it easy for workers to access benefits, a new report found.

With California lawmakers debating the fate of some 1,200-plus bills ahead of the end of the legislative session this month, let’s check in on some existing programs’ effectiveness. Today, an in-depth assessment of California’s unemployment insurance program is set to be released by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, which advises lawmakers on fiscal issues. As […]

California's unemployment rate is improving, but inflation, sky-high prices and high interest rates threaten the state's economic recovery.