There was a segment on KVCR recently about the lack of jobs data due to the government shutdown. Here is the link: https://www.kvcrnews.org/local-news/2025-11-24/economics-ie-nov-24
It’s true that our usual metrics of unemployment rate or job growth are not available, and that the data for September and October will simply not be reported. But it’s not true that we have *no* jobs data for the Inland Empire. We have some limited data available; you just can’t find it at federal sites like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or even the U.S. Census Bureau.
The state of California publishes new unemployment insurance claims data at the county level, weekly. These data were not affected by the federal shutdown because they are part of a state-funded program. The California EDD counts the number of new applications for unemployment insurance and reports that number, as well as cross-tabs by demographics and industry. It is a sign of job loss, and can be a leading indicator of unemployment, because it measures how many people who may have lost their job recently are filing for unemployment benefits.
Here is a time series of new UI claims in SB County over the past year. It shows a downward trend, suggesting no current economic weakness in the labor market. A similar pattern holds in Riverside County.
These data can even be accessed by industry. See above, which tracks UI claims in the sectors Mr. Mena mentioned toward the end of the interview: Retail and Logistics.
New UI claims in retail and logistics are seasonal and tend to peak in Q1 of each year (another small bump in late-Q2). But as these data also show (data go until November - the formatting of the x-axis is incorrect), year-over-year there is no major increase in either industry, suggesting a normal season for both sectors as of November.
My own calculations suggest that, year-over-year, there are slight declines in new UI claims in these industries.