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Thursday, May 6, 2021

New California Claims: Still bouncing around too high

We continue to follow new weekly claims for unemployment insurance. Claims fell in the week ending May 1, both at the U.S. level (seasonally adjusted and unadjusted) and at the California level (unadjusted). But, when you look beyond the noise, the numbers are still well above "normal." New California claims should be around 40,000-50,000. But they are bounding around in the 70,000-80,000 range, as the more detailed chart below shows more clearly. Of course, things are much better than a year ago when the state and national economies were heavily shut down, and better even than back in the fall.

Nonetheless, we still have a ways to go. As always, the latest data are at:

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.

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