Initial Claims by County (all programs) - The number of claims submitted for all UI programs. Initial claims totals are not representative of the number of individuals filing as a claimant can have multiple initial claims.
∙ Initial Claims by County - The data provided is the number of Unemployment Insurance (UI) initial claim counts, which includes new claims, additional claims, and transitional claims.
• A "new claim" is the first claim for a benefit year period (e.g., for the regular UI program it is 52 weeks).  An individual would only have one new claim during a benefit year period.
• An "additional claim" is when another claim is filed during the same benefit year and there is intervening work between the current claim and the previous claim.  For example, an individual files a new claim, goes back to work, gets laid off and files another claim before the benefit year period of the first claim expires.  An individual can have multiple additional claims during the same benefit year if the individual meets the eligibility requirements.
• A "transitional claim" is when a claimant is still collecting benefits at the end of their benefit year period and had sufficient wage earnings during that year to start up a new claim once the first benefit year period ends.
∙ The data by county represents the mailing address given by the claimant at the time of filing for UI.  It is possible that an individual can reside in a different county than their mailing address.  Also, this information does not represent the county where the individual worked.  It is also possible that a claimant could have moved or changed their mailing address after filing for UI which would not be reflected here. Data for claimants residing outside of California but collecting benefits are not included in these figures nor are invalid addresses in California where a county cannot be determined.
"∙ Initial claims does not represent total individuals as an individual can have multiple claims. For example, someone may begin collecting UI benefits, then go off UI to return to work, then get laid off and go back on UI. In this example, the individual would have
two claim counts. "
∙ Data includes the regular UI program and the federal extended benefit programs. The Federal extended benefit programs are:
∙ Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Tier 1 - California began paying benefits in July 2008.
∙ Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Tier 2 - California began paying benefits in January 2009, payments retroactive to November 2008.
∙ Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Tier 3 - California began paying benefits in December 2009, payments retroactive to November 2009.
∙ Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Tier 4 - California began paying benefits in January 2010, payments retroactive to December 2009.
∙ FED-ED - California began paying benefits May 2009, payments retroactive to February 2009.