California unemployment claims jump for fourth straight week – Daily News

Initial jobless claims in California rose last week, staying well above typical levels and adding to uncertainty about the nationwide recovery from coronavirus-related illnesses.

California workers filed around 68,100 jobless claims last week, 2,600 more than the previous week, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday.

Nationwide unemployment claims have now risen for four consecutive weeks and are at their highest level in three months.

Contrary to California’s unemployment claims, jobless claims in the United States have declined and are at their lowest since the government-mandated business lockdowns began to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

U.S. workers filed 348,000 initial jobless claims for the week ended August 14, 29,000 fewer than the week before.

Unemployment reports, released in California last week, are 52% higher than the last time the statewide economy was classified as healthy.

In January 2020 and February 2020, the last two months before closings to fight the deadly virus, California was making an average of 44,800 jobless claims per week, analysis of filings by this news organization shows.

The weekly number of applications for unemployment benefits has declined more or less steadily since the 900,000 mark in early January. The decline in initial jobless claims coincided with the widespread use of vaccines, which led businesses to reopen or extend their hours and withdraw consumers to shops, restaurants, airports and entertainment venues.

Nevertheless, the number of applications remains high in historical comparison: Before the pandemic ravaged the economy in March 2020, the weekly pace was around 220,000 per week. And now there is growing concern that the highly contagious Delta variant could disrupt economic recovery from last year’s brief but severe recession. Some economists have already started revising their growth forecasts for this quarter downwards as some economic indicators, such as air travel, weaken.

Claims for unemployment benefits have traditionally been viewed as a real-time measure of labor market health. But their reliability has deteriorated during the pandemic. In many states, weekly numbers have been bloated by fraud and multiple filings by unemployed Americans breaking bureaucratic hurdles to get benefits. These complications explain why the pace of applications remains comparatively high.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.