Archived News Releases 2022

In another major step toward improving services for California's linguistically diverse communities, Andrea Salazar, New York state's former language access coordinator, has joined California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) to lead a new Language Access Office. EDD also joined diverse communities across California to announce new grant funding to continue boosting multilingual access to state services.

California’s unemployment rate dropped in the month of June 2022 to 4.2 percent as the state’s employers added 19,900 nonfarm payroll jobs to the economy, according to data released today by the California Employment Development Department (EDD) from two surveys.

The Employment Development Department (EDD) is notifying its customers that Geographic Solutions, Inc. (GSI), the vendor that operates the CalJOBS website, is experiencing a nationwide service interruption.

California’s unemployment rate went down for the month of May 2022 to 4.3 percent1 as the state’s employers added 42,900 nonfarm payroll jobs2 to the economy, according to data released today by the California Employment Development Department (EDD) from two surveys. The state’s rate is now just 0.2 percentage point higher than the pre-pandemic unemployment rate of 4.1 percent in February 2020.

As Father’s Day approaches, the California Employment Development Department (EDD) is reminding Californians about family-focused benefits available through the state’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) program, which provides financial support to fathers and mothers while they take time off from work to bond with their new child.

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) announced today it has awarded $1.2 million in Equity and Special Populations (ESP) Technical Assistance and Evaluation grants to support underserved job seekers in California. The funds for Program Year (PY) 2021-22 are going to ICF Incorporated, LLC, to assist current ESP program awardees with implementing projects that advance employment strategies for this population. ICF Incorporated, LLC, will enhance equity-of-access to workforce development services for English language learners, homeless and housing insecure, immigrants, justice-involved individuals, people with disabilities, veterans, young adults, and populations in locations disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

The Employment Development Department (EDD) today announced it blocked a recent unemployment insurance fraud attempt involving crooks trying to steal hundreds of millions in benefits using paper and fax applications. EDD is now mailing notices to claimants to separate the fraud attempts from any legitimate claims.

California’s unemployment rate went down for the month of April 2022 to 4.6 percent as the state’s employers added 41,400 nonfarm payroll jobs to the economy, according to data released today by the California Employment Development Department (EDD) from two surveys. March’s unemployment rate was revised down 0.1 percentage points to 4.8 percent largely due to a 6,000-person decrease in unemployment.

With Mother’s Day fast approaching on May 8, 2022, the Employment Development Department (EDD) is celebrating California’s Paid Family Leave program, which since its inception has delivered more than $12 billion in benefits on almost 4 million claims so Californians can take time off work to bond with a new child, care for an ill family member, or to help during a family member’s military deployment to a foreign country.

Continuing the effort to improve customer service for Californians who prefer languages other than English, the Employment Development Department (EDD) posted new multilingual resources online, including translated forms and other vital information.

California’s unemployment rate went down for the month of March 2022 to 4.9 percent as the state’s employers added 60,200 nonfarm payroll jobs to the economy, according to data released today by the California Employment Development Department (EDD) from two surveys. February’s unemployment rate was revised down 0.1 percentage points to 5.3 percent due to a drop in unemployment by 12,000 persons.

In an effort to further speed the process of determining eligibility for unemployment benefits, EDD will begin mailing written fact-finding questionnaires to many claimants who do not have scheduled telephone eligibility interviews.

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) and California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) today issued updates on the “monumental effort” to investigate and prosecute criminals who defrauded federal emergency unemployment benefit programs in 2020—work that involves over 1,400 active investigations and at least 130 criminal convictions.

California’s unemployment rate went down for the month of February 2022 to 5.4 percent as the state’s employers added 138,100 nonfarm payroll jobs to the economy, according to data released today by the California Employment Development Department (EDD) from two surveys.

California’s unemployment rate stayed steady from December 2021 into January 2022 at 5.8 percent as the state’s employers added 53,600 nonfarm payroll jobs to the economy, according to data released today by the California Employment Development Department (EDD) from two surveys. December’s unemployment rate was revised down 0.7 percentage points to 5.8 percent due to updated benchmarking figures that showed an increase of 248,200 jobs for that month.