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Thursday, April 8, 2021

New California Claims Data Suggest a Persisting Labor Market Problem


As blog readers will know, we have been checking in on new weekly claims for unemployment insurance as an indicator of labor market conditions in California. The last few weeks - including the data for the week ended April 3rd - show an uptick in such claims. So while some of the health indicators have led the governor to announce a reopening of the state scheduled for June 15th, there remains economic damage. National new claims data have also ticked up, whether seasonally-adjusted or unadjusted. 

As we have also noted, the state budget outlook is somewhat disconnected from the underlying economy thanks to the budget's heavy dependence on upper-income taxpayers, cutbacks enacted last June when it was thought revenue would fall, and infusions of federal money. 

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

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