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Californians Can Again Apply For Unemployment Benefits After 2-Week Pause

(Chava Sanchez/LAist)

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Starting today, Californians who are out of work will be able to once again file for unemployment benefits. The Employment Development Department is set to begin accepting new claims after a two-week "reset period."

Agency officials said they used the pause to catch up and improve technology including:

  • speeding up benefits payments
  • reducing fraud
  • getting through the backlog a little faster.

As of the end of September, more than 1.5 million Californians were waiting for their unemployment checks.

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