As California’s economy continues to struggle amid the COVID-19 pandemic, state officials will mark the Labor Day holiday by sending a $900 supplemental unemployment benefit to jobless residents — but many will not get the assistance right away, and nearly 200,000 people are not expected to get it at all.

The lump-sum payment covers three weeks of benefits retroactive to the week that ended Aug. 1 at the rate of $300 per week and is paid for by the federal government. An earlier federal program provided a $600 weekly supplemental benefit on top of normal state unemployment checks, but that program expired in July.

With Congress deadlocked over a proposal to extend that $600 benefit, an executive order by President Trump last month authorized $300 in weekly supplements, but with no guarantee of continuing beyond three weeks.

The latest payment “will provide much-needed relief” for California’s unemployed workers, said Dana Hadl, directing attorney for Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, but she said more is needed.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.