A Longitudinal Survey of Unemployment Insurance Recipients in Two Regions in California

Key Findings:

• Recipients who were not employed at both survey waves were most likely to look for work by contacting friends, relatives, or professional associates. By the second wave, 43 percent of Los Angeles recipients and 33 percent of Central Valley recipients received information from an American Job Center (AJC) on education or job training programs.
• By the second survey, about a third of reemployed Los Angeles recipients and about 60 percent of reemployed Central Valley recipients returned to the same employer they had for their pre-UI job.
• Shortly after recipients lost their jobs, their households used a variety of financial management strategies, most commonly withdrawing money from savings, but this became less common over time as more recipients found reemployment. Recipients did not become more likely over time to report having been 60 or more days late in paying their bills or having food insecurity. However, over time, spouses and unmarried partners of UI recipients increased their average hours worked, and household rates of receipt of any of five types of public assistance benefits increased. 
• Ninety-seven percent of recipients at each survey wave reported that UI payments were very important or somewhat important in helping them to meet their financial obligations and avoid financial losses. 

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