A Quarter of California's Eligible Workforce Has Filed for Unemployment

More than 214,000 Californians were among the nearly 3 million Americans who applied for unemployment benefits last week as the impact of COVID-19 continues to hammer the economy.

Since March 14, the state has processed more than 4.2 million claims for unemployment — that represents 24.3% of the total workforce of California that is eligible for the unemployment insurance program.

And as of May 2, more than 4.8 million Californians were receiving unemployment benefits, which represents 27.8% of all eligible employees in the state.

Nationwide, roughly 36 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the two months since the coronavirus first forced millions of businesses to close their doors and shrink their workforces, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.

California contributed to a national increase in the seasonally adjusted number of claims of 1,288.5% over the same week last year.

Still, the number of applications submitted in California has been gradually declining over the past several weeks. The week ending on May 9 saw a decline of 32.3% in the number of applications submitted compared to the previous week — although it represents an increase of 440.2% from the same time period last year.

— Lisa Pickoff-White and the Associated Press