Labor Dept deploys ‘strike team’ to California over $21B unemployment debt, fraud concerns

The Labor Department deployed a "strike team" to California to address federal findings of improper payments and alleged fraud within the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) program.

California has been found to have a depleted UI trust fund, along with $21 billion in borrowed federal funds to keep the system running — which federal officials say has led state employers to pay higher UI taxes to repay the debt.

In a statement, the department cited an 83-page California State Auditor...