California unemployment appeals inventory drops sharply; average case age improves

Chair Michael Allen and agency leaders told the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board on July 16 that the board’s appeals inventory has fallen dramatically and case-processing speeds are improving. The board heard that monthly closures and system upgrades contributed to the decline: in the most recent month the agency closed 1,103 appeals, 1,078 of them in the CAMS platform and 25 in the legacy system. That left an active appeals inventory of 16,709 cases, down from a peak of about 146,000 in earlier years. The figures matter because federal Department of Labor (DOL) timing standards are used to measure the agency’s performance. “We monitor our daily appeal intake from EDD very closely. It is remaining at a relatively low level,” said Judge Koutre, the agency’s executive director, noting the inventory sits approximately 12 percent below pre-pandemic baseline levels. He said the national average reported by DOL remains much higher at about 191 days. Why it matters: lower inventory and a falling average case age should allow the agency to meet DOL timeliness benchmarks and reduce backlogs for claimants. Board members and staff gave specific timing metrics. The agency reported an average case age of 38.1 days (down from 38.8 the prior month). The agency said it is required to close 60 percent of cases within 30 days; in June it closed 12.8 percent within that window. On the 45-day metric the agency is required to close 80 percent of cases and closed 55.1 percent in June, marking substantial improvement over recent years. Judge Rebecca Bach, who supervises appellate operations, gave complementary DOL-oriented figures for another set of metrics used at the board level: year-to-date performance was 53.4 percent for the 45-day measure and 94.6 percent for the 75-day measure; she said the agency’s target for case age was 40 days or less and reported an average of 29.5 days. Board members credited staff and IT for recent improvements and for a CAMS release that staff said reduced manual workarounds. Chair Allen opened the meeting by thanking support staff, field judges, appellate staff and management for their work on cases. The board did not take policy action at this meeting; the discussion was an update on operational performance. Looking ahead: staff said continued declines in incoming appeals and the CAMS improvements should produce further gains in timeliness so long as low intake continues.