California unemployment rate hits 6.2% in March

[El Pinko]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-caljobs19apr19,0,5944269.story


California unemployment rate hits 6.2% in March
Joblessness is up 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier, with 229,000 more Californians looking for work than in March 2007.
By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 19, 2008

SACRAMENTO -- California's unemployment rate hit 6.2% in March, the highest level in almost four years, spurred by a continuing downturn in construction and financial activities.

The Employment Development Department reported Friday that 1.13 million people were out of work last month, marking the state's weakest economic performance since July 2004, when the jobless rate also stood at 6.2%.

Unemployment is up 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier, with 229,000 more Californians looking for work than in March 2007.

Since then, the job outlook has darkened as a largely housing-related slowdown has cut into the net worth of consumers, forcing them to cut back spending, economists said.

[Zynx]

1. Given the scale of the housing bust in CA, I would not be surprised to see unemployment hit 8%.

[trashcanistanista]

2. People are leaving the state.

A coworker of mine is moving to Texas. It's impossible toget a home here, as well as support a family of four with two in college. Many others are thinking of leaving, just deciding where to go. All of our homes have lost value and are virtually impossible to sell at this point because there is so much inventory. It's hard to get out with this factor looming, but many are trying to. Our salaries, by the way, have not nor will increase despite the high costs of food and fuel.

[ThomWV]

3. The real rate has to be much higher, because 6% isn't jack shit.

Economists use the term 'structural unemployement' which describes the natural number of people who are between jobs, as in they just quit one and haven't started their next yet and similar situations. Think of it as background noise. The rate is generally thought to be somewhere around 5%.

[Breeze54]

5. I'll bet the unemployed don't see it as 'jack shit'.

The number of unemployed Californians fell by 41,000 persons in February to 1,043,000

Unemployment in California rose at about twice the national rate over the year ending in February 2008.

http://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/article.asp?ARTICLEID=725&printerFriendly=true

And you're right, they aren't counting those that have dropped off the ranks
of unemployed collecting checks but over a million unemployed is still a lot!

[Breeze54]

4. That's terrible.

:(