Sluggish

As judged by new weekly claims for unemployment insurance through the end of last week (Oct. 17), the national economy continued its sluggish recovery. 

California is again processing and reporting claims and has done the reporting retroactively. Whether the public announcement in California of a pause in processing discouraged the filing of claims during the pause is unclear, however.

The national data are depicted below:

California data are below (not seasonally adjusted):

We have noted in prior posts of allegations of fraud in California's program. As if to underscore the problem, a recent article in the LA Times notes that a rapper wrote/sang a song called "EDD" (California Employment Development Dept. which runs the unemployment benefits system) about defrauding the system. He was then arrested for doing just that.*

All in all, sluggishness seems to describe both the California and U.S. recovery.

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*https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-16/nuke-bizzle-rapped-about-getting-rich-from-unemployment-claims-feds-charge-him-with-doing-just-that

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The latest new claims data are (always) at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.