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With movie and film production at a complete standstill and concert halls and theaters padlocked, 238,000 Californians who work in entertainment and the arts have filed for unemployment so far this year.
According to official state numbers, those out of work are largely based in L.A., where 68,000 of the claims come from. There have also been tens of thousands of claims from Orange and San Diego counties.
In early March, only a few hundred arts workers statewide filed for benefits. By the end of that month, however, that number had grown to 46,000.
And even though the state’s overall jobless rate has been falling, the number of initial claims from artists and entertainers has gone up about 40% over the past month.
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