The unemployment rate of California almost tripled to 15.5 percent in April as the country's most populated state lost employments in one month from COVID-19. This, based on the data released on Friday, is in comparison with the Great Recession ten years ago.

A couple of months ago, the state boasted what it considered, an unmatched "economic expansion" as it reported to have added over 3.4 million jobs over one decade. Specifically, the said expansion accounted for 15 percent in the job growth of the country.

Annie Ellis, Employment Attorney recently joined Good Morning San Diego to explain unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on reports, "California accounted for 11.4 percent of all employments" lost across the country in April as jobless rate soared a little over 10 percentage points for months.

The said percentage was the largest one-month increase since 1976 when California started to use its present formula to measure employment losses.

All 11 industry sectors of the state saw drops last month, led by hospitality and leisure, having over 860,000. Country-wide, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said, "the jobless rate reached 14.7 percent as all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia," reported growth in job losses.

The California Unemployment Statistics

The joblessness statistics of California which the state Employment Development Department released, only state part of the story as the report is based on a survey which was conducted near mid-April.

In relation to the said statistics, residents of the state have become unemployed since then, with a report from the department that more than five million peopled have applied for unemployment benefits since March.

Former State Employment Agency Director Michael Bernick, who is currently an attorney with Duane Morries said, businesses that have attempted to hold on to employees who decide that "they cannot do so any longer," others have decided that they cannot remain operational without knowing what lies ahead in the future.

Bernick added it is only when there are "confident and aggressive reopening" in the state that job reconstruction can be expected to actually start.

Also according to reports, the state has been under an obligatory, statewide stay-at-home directive since Mid-March. However, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom has recently altered the directive to let a lot of businesses to restart their operation as long as they abide by certain safety guidelines.

Drop in Unemployment Claims

Signs are already appearing that the California citizens are going back to work. Finance and economics professor at Loyola Marymount University, Sung Won Sohn said the weekly unemployment claims of the state have declined from over one million during the latter part of March to just more than 240,000 last week.

The professor added, there are some favorable results for California. Its early implementation of lockdown in the Bay Area "followed by Southern California has reduced contagions and saved a lot of jobs."

Nevertheless, the surge of unemployment claims has exhausted the joblessness trust fund of the state, obliging it to borrow from the federal government, billions of dollars for an amount.

And, even when people who applied for joblessness claims get approved for such payments, they are reportedly often delayed for more than one month.

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