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California To Halt Unemployment Claims For Two Weeks

"Sigh" by TMAB2003 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

For the next two weeks California will not be taking any new unemployment claims. The timing’s tough: more than two million Californians are currently out of work.

Officials said the move is an effort to prevent fraud and reduce a backlog of unprocessed claims - nearly 600,000 people haven’t been paid for more than 3 weeks.

 

Californians already in the unemployment system are not expected to see an interruption in their payments. But the EDD — that’s the Employment Development Department — it’s asking people who haven’t yet filed claims to share contact info ... so the department can catch up with the new backlog after the two weeks are up.

 

The two-week pause was recommended by a team appointed by Governor Newsom in July. Their job is to help the EDD work better.

 

I joined KALW in 2004. As Executive News Editor and then News Director, I helped our news department win numerous regional and national awards for long- and short-form journalism. I've also helped create numerous training programs — for teenagers, incarcerated people, and early-career journalists — and have taught hundreds of audio producers. I served as interim Executive Director for nearly two years. My work is currently focused on creating original live events, programming, and building partnerships with like-minded organizations.