COVID job market: California unemployment claims jump

California workers filed more than 61,000 initial claims for unemployment during the week that ended on Nov. 13.

California workers filed more initial claims for unemployment last week compared to the week before, a dreary indicator that the state continues to struggle to recover from coronavirus-linked maladies.

Workers statewide filed 61,464 first-time jobless claims during the week that ended on Nov. 13, an increase of 6,431 from the 55,033 claims that were filed in the week ending on Nov. 6, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

The increase in unemployment claims in California ended three consecutive weeks of decreases.

Nationwide, workers filed 268,000 initial jobless claims last week, a decrease of 1,000 from 269,000 that were filed the week before, the Labor Department reported. These numbers are adjusted for seasonal volatility.

The unemployment claims in California remain greatly elevated from the weekly filings that are typical for a healthy economy.

During January 2020 and February 2020, the final two months before government-mandated business shutdowns to combat the coronavirus began, jobless claims averaged 44,800 a week in California.

The initial unemployment claims filed last week in California are 37% higher than what they were just prior to the start of the coronavirus-linked lockdowns, this news organization’s analysis of the filings shows.