Lauren Hepler / CalMatters

The state went deep into debt to keep jobless benefits flowing during the pandemic. And if it doesn’t fix its $48 billion unemployment problem, that could derail COVID-19 recovery.

New moving data and intensifying housing bidding wars undercut fears of a California mass exodus. But some cities have been hit harder, and many rushed moves are difficult to track, obscuring COVID-induced migration.

Amid winter closures triggered by record virus cases, California kicked off an unprecedented small business rescue plan. Still, business owners warn that it’s not enough.

After the Great Recession, California signed an exclusive contract with Bank of America to distribute unemployment benefits through prepaid debit cards. A CalMatters investigation reveals that, to this day, no one knows how much the bank made off the deal. Lawmakers are examining the bank's role in mass account freezes and untold amounts of missing money for thousands of struggling, jobless Californians — as well as where the bank may have failed to keep unemployment money safe from fraud.

Labor groups that spent $20 million against Prop. 22 are warning that the measure cements gig workers as a “second class” of workers and mulling limited options to challenge it.

Gig companies embark on a last-minute spending blitz after a court rules that drivers should be paid as employees and labor groups question campaign tactics.

As early voting begins this week, the most expensive state ballot measure in modern history has widened the fault lines in the battle over the future of work.

An Oct. 15 state deadline to restore $11 billion in funding for education, housing and state workers looks likely to pass with no more financial help from Washington. Is there still hope for a reprieve, and could deeper cuts follow?

Beyond the conservative Facebook memes and viral YouTube videos, has California reached a breaking point?

State lawmakers aimed for a $600-a-week unemployment extension and billions in tax vouchers. Federal inaction, economic anxiety and the pandemic derailed those plans.

A judge ruled that the ride-hailing giants must comply with California’s AB 5 contractor law, but legal appeals, a November ballot battle and big questions about organized labor loom large.

In the middle of it all is Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has yet to show his cards on a preferred plan to dig the state out of its deep financial hole.