California: People must look for work to get jobless aid

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California will stop giving unemployment benefits to people who are not actively applying for jobs.

Federal law requires people who are out of work to be actively looking for jobs to be eligible for unemployment benefits. But the federal government let states waive that requirement during the pandemic because so many businesses were ordered to close.

California has waived its work-search rule since March 2020.

Thursday, the California Employment Development Department said it would resume the requirement July 11.

Since the pandemic began, California has processed more than 20 million unemployment claims and paid out more than $128 billion in benefits.