California Employment Development Department

Suzanne Dinatale lost her job as sales manager for a biotech company in July. She applied almost immediately for unemployment benefits to help cushion the blow. Dinatale, 41, of Manhattan Beach, said she had no problem receiving the forms she needed to get the ball rolling with California's Employment Development Department. "After that, nothing," she told me. "I called them and got hung up on. I sent emails that got no responses. " Dinatale is now dipping into her retirement savings to get by. "This is the first time I've ever needed unemployment," she said.

SACRAMENTO - California has announced a sweeping overhaul of its troubled Employment Development Department, following months of turmoil that left thousands of Californians struggling to get their unemployment benefits. A top aide to Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday ordered the agency to hire hundreds of new workers and pay overtime to staffers to beef up the EDD's woeful customer service. In recent months, jobless workers have found it nearly impossible to reach agents at EDD for assistance after a computer glitch interrupted payments.

Patriotism isn't easy. Just ask L.A.'s garment makers. Three years after combining their names to create Venley, a company that produces T-shirts and other basics in a downtown Los Angeles factory, onetime fraternity brothers Nick Ventura and Kevin Gressley find manufacturing clothes in the U.S. to be an expensive and frustrating undertaking. Like many other apparel executives in the U.S., the pair pay more than the minimum wage, Ventura said. Sometimes, the same amount of money Venley shells out for locally made fabric gets Wal-Mart Stores Inc. an entire outfit sewed abroad.

The California Assembly will hold a hearing Wednesday to determine what exactly went wrong with a botched upgrade to the state's unemployment benefits computer system that has left thousands without jobless checks for weeks. The Times has reported extensively on the problems that began over Labor Day weekend, when the California Employment Development Department launched the update. A problem occurred when transferring old claims data to the new software, which was designed by Deloitte Consulting, a New York firm with a record of delivering IT projects in California over budget and often with problematic results.  LIVE CHAT: Join us at 11 a.m. The glitch affected as many as 300,000 claims, delaying payments to tens of thousands of unemployed Californians, according to internal emails.

The Oxnard Job Service Office of the California Employment Development Department (EDD) has reopened after the tragic shooting incident on Dec. 2, in which five persons, including the gunman, were killed and another four wounded. The employees of EDD have expressed to me their appreciation for the kindness and caring that local citizens and organizations have extended to our staff. Your consideration has helped us to cope with a traumatic situation and its aftermath. Please be assured that the safety of our employees and all EDD customers is foremost in our concern, and the department is taking steps to provide a safe environment for all who make use of EDD facilities.

The California Assembly will hold a hearing Wednesday to determine what exactly went wrong with a botched upgrade to the state's unemployment benefits computer system that has left thousands without jobless checks for weeks. The Times has reported extensively on the problems that began over Labor Day weekend, when the California Employment Development Department launched the update. A problem occurred when transferring old claims data to the new software, which was designed by Deloitte Consulting, a New York firm with a record of delivering IT projects in California over budget and often with problematic results.  LIVE CHAT: Join us at 11 a.m. The glitch affected as many as 300,000 claims, delaying payments to tens of thousands of unemployed Californians, according to internal emails.

SACRAMENTO -- Much-dreaded automatic federal budget cuts are about to be felt by more than 400,000 long-term unemployed in California. The California Employment Development Department, which administers both state and federal unemployment insurance programs, will be cutting the federal portion by approximately 17.7% beginning April 28. LIVE VIDEO CHAT: Join us at 2 p.m. That represents a tiny share of the $85-billion reduction in...

Ten job agencies around the state have received a $5-million grant to be used to train and place military veterans in jobs, the California Employment Development Department said Friday. Each of the agencies, which include four in Los Angeles County, received $500,000 to help train and place military veterans, who have higher unemployment rates than civilian workers. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the jobless rate for military members who have served since September 2011 was 12.1% last year -- more than three points higher than national jobless rate in 2011, which was 8.9%.

California's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10.9% in February even as the state added thousands of new jobs. The percentage of jobless workers held the same as January, though it was down from 12.0% in February last year. The rate remained the same even as the state added 4,000 total jobs in February, according to the California Employment Development Department. The state has gained a total of 333,100 jobs since the recovery began in September 2009. The U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged in February at 8.3%.

California's labor market continued its slow improvement in March as employers added jobs for the eighth straight month. Payrolls grew by 18,200 jobs last month, according to figures released Friday by the California Employment Development Department. That's on top of a revised 38,600 jobs in February. The unemployment rate increased to 11% in March, up slightly from February's 10.9% rate. Still, improving job prospects have encouraged more California workers to reenter the labor force, driving the jobless rate higher, said Dennis Meyers, principal economist for the state's Department of Finance.

A report released Tuesday by the National Employment Law Project blames chronic underfunding by the federal government for problems with states' unemployment insurance programs that include extensive backlogs and outdated, unreliable systems. State unemployment insurance programs, which receive federal funding for administrative costs, were put to the test during the Great Recession, NELP said. Before the recession, about 2.5 million people were collecting unemployment benefits but that figure jumped to 10 million at its peak.  NELP found that state unemployment programs use technologies that are 26 years old on average and that most state systems rely on antiquated programming languages.

Suzanne Dinatale lost her job as sales manager for a biotech company in July. She applied almost immediately for unemployment benefits to help cushion the blow. Dinatale, 41, of Manhattan Beach, said she had no problem receiving the forms she needed to get the ball rolling with California's Employment Development Department. "After that, nothing," she told me. "I called them and got hung up on. I sent emails that got no responses. " Dinatale is now dipping into her retirement savings to get by. "This is the first time I've ever needed unemployment," she said.

SACRAMENTO - In the closing days of the Legislature last year, Gov. Jerry Brown helped forge a compromise on a sweeping overhaul of the workers' compensation insurance system and persuaded Democratic and Republican lawmakers to pass it into law. Now he is taking on another big challenge: He wants to fix the state's financially ailing unemployment insurance program, which pays jobless Californians up to $450 a week. With one of the nation's highest unemployment rates for several years, the state has had to borrow money from the feds to keep the program going.

A new website announced Wednesday that uses state wage data shows California community college students the value of their certificate or degree. The Salary Surfer provides information on median annual incomes for 179 popular programs including health, business, social sciences, architecture, engineering and other disciplines. The intent is to help students make more informed decisions about their education, Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris said in a telephone briefing.

Patriotism isn't easy. Just ask L.A.'s garment makers. Three years after combining their names to create Venley, a company that produces T-shirts and other basics in a downtown Los Angeles factory, onetime fraternity brothers Nick Ventura and Kevin Gressley find manufacturing clothes in the U.S. to be an expensive and frustrating undertaking. Like many other apparel executives in the U.S., the pair pay more than the minimum wage, Ventura said. Sometimes, the same amount of money Venley shells out for locally made fabric gets Wal-Mart Stores Inc. an entire outfit sewed abroad.

SACRAMENTO - Want help from the state getting unemployment benefits? Don't call after noon. Because of federal budget cuts, the California Employment Development Department has told its call center workers not to answer its benefits hotline after lunch. Starting Monday, the thinning band of staffers will be reassigned to other duties from noon to 5 p.m., such as processing claims for benefits and responding to online inquiries. Limiting call center hours was the best of a number of bad choices, department spokeswoman Loree Levy said.

A new website announced Wednesday that uses state wage data shows California community college students the value of their certificate or degree. The Salary Surfer provides information on median annual incomes for 179 popular programs including health, business, social sciences, architecture, engineering and other disciplines. The intent is to help students make more informed decisions about their education, Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris said in a telephone briefing.

California's unemployment rate fell to 11.1% in December from 11.3% in November, marking five straight months of declines. Last month, the state gained about 10,700 new payroll jobs, the California Employment Development Department said Friday. At the same time, an earlier tally of 6,600 new jobs created in November was revised upward dramatically to 24,700. In all, the Golden State created 240,300 new jobs in 2011. The new numbers suggest that California's economy is gaining traction as it steadily replaces more of the 1.3 million jobs lost in the 2007-2009 recession.

SACRAMENTO -- Much-dreaded automatic federal budget cuts are about to be felt by more than 400,000 long-term unemployed in California. The California Employment Development Department, which administers both state and federal unemployment insurance programs, will be cutting the federal portion by approximately 17.7% beginning April 28. LIVE VIDEO CHAT: Join us at 2 p.m. That represents a tiny share of the $85-billion reduction in...

SACRAMENTO - California's unemployment rate fell to 10.2% in September from 10.6% in August, posting one of the biggest drops of any state for the month. The decline took the rate to its lowest level since March 2009, during the worst recession in half a century. It follows the announcement of a reduction in the national unemployment rate to 7.8% in September from 8.1% the prior month. But the employment report released Friday has a less rosy side: The California Employment Development Department reported that only 8,500 net new payroll jobs were created statewide in September.