California’s unemployment rate remains steady at 5.3%

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(The Center Square) – The latest numbers from the California Employment Development Department show 30,286 residents filed new unemployment claims totaling $115 million during the week ending July 4.

That's almost double the number of people who filed renewed unemployment claims during the same week: 15,819 people.

That means a total of 46,105 people filed for unemployment benefits during the week leading up to America’s 250th birthday.

Numbers from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis show that as of May 2026, California’s unemployment rate amounts to roughly 5.3%.

“California’s market is weaker than nationally,” Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics for the Pacific Research Institute, told The Center Square on Friday. “The unemployment rate is higher outside of healthcare, so I think that’s kind of the more important issue, especially relative to the rest of the country. So you’re going to see higher payments just because there’s more unemployment.”

However, a 5.3% unemployment rate is relatively low, Winegarden added.

“Back in the ‘80s, we had 10% unemployment,” Winegarden said. “That’s an unemployment rate.”

Los Angeles County saw the most people in need of unemployment benefits, numbering at 12,507 just that week. The numbers are down significantly from 46,160 people statewide who needed unemployment the week of Jan. 17 - the worst week for unemployment in the state so far this year, according to the data.

People who worked in administrative support, waste management and remediation services saw the most claims – 3,441 – up to the last week of June, the last week for which numbers were available for individual industries.

However, so far this year, construction saw the most number of unemployment claims. Workers in that industry far outnumber that of other professions, at 120,910.

“That’s indicative of the fact that the construction industry is not doing well,” Winegarden said. “That is definitely a concern.”

The department reported that the number of unemployment claims since March 2020 stands at 36.5 million, and $209 billion of unemployment claims have been paid out since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out that month.

The data also shows that Californians between ages 25 and 34 filed the most unemployment claims as of the week of June 27, at 10,044 that week. Californians of all ages with a high school-level or GED education filed more unemployment claims than any other educational demographic, at 11,613, and men had a harder time finding gainful employment than women. The data shows that 19,239 men filed unemployment claims, compared to 18,239 women that week. Hispanic workers filed more unemployment claims than any other race, at 16,331.

The federal data shows that the May unemployment rate, the latest federal data available for California, is consistent with the monthly unemployment rate so far this year. Californians saw a 5.4% unemployment rate starting in January, which dropped slightly to 5.3% in March and has stayed consistent since.

In July 2025, the state’s unemployment rate was 5.5%, up slightly from 5.4% in July 2024. The last big dip in unemployment occurred in August 2022, when the state saw a 3.8% unemployment rate. It was sky-high in May 2020, two months after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, at 15.8%, the highest rate in the state since 1976. That’s the first year shown in the federal data.

According to numbers from the Employment Development Department, the state saw 97,200 jobs added to the state's economy since the beginning of the year, an average of 24,300 jobs a month. In April, four industries increased the number of jobs – private education and health services, with 11,500 jobs – followed by dentists, home healthcare services, nursing care facilities, and individual and family services. Trade, transportation and utilities also saw job gains, while the information industry lost 7,400 jobs.

The California Employment Development Department did not respond to The Center Square's request for comment before press time on Friday. Officials with Los Angeles County, the county with the state's highest unemployment rate, also did not respond. Los Angeles County saw 12,507 people apply for unemployment benefits during the week ending July 4.