In the span of just two weeks, California received a staggering 90,000 applications for unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Labor.
There was a drastic 10,000-percent surge in new benefit claims ending June 8, totaling over 51,000 applications. Despite this, California has been on a path to recovery, with the unemployment rate dropping to 5.3 percent from pandemic highs of over 16 percent.
Employers in California are actively hiring, and the state has added more than 3 million jobs, averaging around 63,000 new jobs per month, as per data from the Employment Development Department (EDD) California.
Even with positive growth, there were close to 165,000 unemployed individuals in April, leaving over a million workers without jobs. The EDD reported a net gain of 200,300 positions since August 2023, signaling a slow but consistent recovery post-pandemic.
The Center for Jobs and the Economy predicts an average monthly increase of 13,000 jobs in the coming year, although the pace currently lags behind the forecast. The state anticipates exceeding 1 million unemployed individuals by the 2nd quarter of 2026.
Nationally, the week ending June 8 saw 13,000 more workers file for unemployment benefits, bringing the total number of new claims to 242,000 for that week.