CA’s Employment Development Department operates inefficiently on purpose?

News analyst Chris Reed scrutinizes the Employment Development Department’s (EDD) phlegmatic responses to unemployment claims during the pandemic. Though widely excused based on COVID’s elevated claims, Reed demonstrates that the EDD’s indolence is actually common during regular claim spikes; and they have long resisted technological advancements and efficient practices so that the EDD can maintain government jobs—and their accessory union dues. To receive daily updates of new Opp Now stories, click here.

Those inclined to be charitable might say it was no surprise that massive job losses during the pandemic would overwhelm the agency. But hold on, says State Auditor Elaine Howle, who is retiring in December after 20 years on the job. In reports dating back to the Great Recession in 2008, Howle’s office has consistently pointed out problems with EDD.

In January, she said the agency had a long history of a sluggish response to any higher level of claims, not just the massive surge seen last spring, and had never adopted common best practices. She said that EDD never completed changes in how operators interacted with callers that she recommended in a 2011 – basically, tracking the reasons for the calls. Having such data could have allowed the agency to revamp its website to provide detailed information that would  answer many of the questions often posed by callers, freeing up operators.

But Howle’s most important point was noting that EDD had made no progress on automating claims processing at a time when some government agencies and much of the private sector has been able to use software to sharply improve efficiency in handling such tasks.

This article originally appeared in the California Policy Center. Read the whole thing here.

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