Unemployment tops 20% in eight California counties; state jobless rate was worst on record

[heli]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cal-jobs11-2010mar11,0,3667613.story

Unemployment tops 20% in eight California counties
The state's jobless rate of 12.5% in January was its worst on record and fifth-highest in the nation.
By Alana Semuels

For many California areas, unemployment rates moved persistently higher in January, indicating that the national economic recovery hasn't yet translated into jobs for the Golden State. New county-by-county figures released by the state Wednesday showed that in eight counties, more than 1 in 5 people were out of work. Moreover, revised numbers for last year show that fewer people were employed than was previously believed.

The state was one of five, along with Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, that reached their highest unemployment rates since the government began keeping track in 1976, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. California's was 12.5% in January, up from 12.3% in December. "The unemployment rate will be persistently at this high level for at least a few more months," said Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University in Orange.

The unemployment rate for the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area reached 15% in January, its highest since 1990, the earliest year for which the state has comparable data available. Unemployment in Orange County reached 10.1%, up from 9.1% in December. The state's revised data for last year showing elevated unemployment indicate that a recovery could take longer than previously predicted. "The impact on the labor market was much more severe than what we had estimated," Adibi said. Most counties were still struggling under the burden of joblessness, especially the eight counties where rates were higher than 20%. Merced County, for instance, had an unemployment rate of 21.7% in January, and Imperial County's rate was 27.3%.

The national unemployment rate in January was 9.7%, and the country experienced a strong 5.75% annualized increase in gross domestic product in last year's final three months. "The real mystery now is why we aren't getting job growth when the GDP has been positive," said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. Budget problems in state and local government are expected to further drag down the state's recovery, Levy said. Even if they don't get pink slips, state employees are earning less money because of furloughs and salary reductions, which reduces consumer spending in the state...

[XemaSab]

1. Here are the top counties:

Colusa: 27.9

Imperial: 27.3

Trinity: 25.8

Plumas: 22.3

Merced: 21.7

San Benito: 21.1

Sutter: 21.0

Yuba: 20.4

Lake: 19.6

Siskiyou: 19.3

Stanislaus: 18.9

San Joaquin: 18.4

Sierra: 18.3

Tulare: 18.3

Fresno: 18.2

Kings: 18.2

Glenn: 18.0

Modoc: 17.9

Monterey: 17.8

Shasta: 17.6

Kern: 17.1

Calaveras: 17.0


San Mateo, Marin, and Mono are under 10%.

[Johonny]

2. Everything will change once Meg Whitman unliberalizes the state

l o l

Yes Republicans are currently running ads against each other claiming the problems with California is its too liberal tax policies...

[Yavin4]

4. What's She Gonna Do?

Sell the state on Ebay.

I bid $50 for San Francisco.

[Yavin4]

3. Well, According to One DUer, All You Have to do to get a job is..

have a good attitude and not have typos on your resume.

The fucking prick.

[Mimosa]

5. ...and not be over age 55, too.

Poor California. :(

STOP OUTSOURCING NOW. Bring manufacturing back to America.

[Yavin4]

6. You Said It

I've met a small army of great IT folks who are older and on the street because of massive consolidation in the financial industry here in NYC.

[tonysam]

7. +1,000,000 n/t

[stopbush]

8. I live in OC and have been out of work for 5.5 months.

The job postings have decreased every single month. Companies just are not hiring. I've been on many interviews at many places here, but very few of them have hired anyone to fill the positions advertised. It's like they're playing games. The few positions that have been filled have gone to people who don't really have the experience the job requires, but they can pay them a lot less and hope they grow into the position.

Being 55 doesn't help my cause.

The best lead I have right now is a job in Cleveland. If that one comes through, I'll be leaving CA. I'll miss the beach and all, but those perks are the first thing to go when you've got a family to feed.

[exboyfil]

9. California used to be the place to move to for the jobs

My family decamped from West Virginia in the late 1960s to move to Orange County. I grew up their (2nd-9th grade) until we decamped again in the late 1970s for Mississippi.

My dad had a love-hate relationship with the state by moving too it and leaving four different times.
The plant he worked in closed in the 1990s pushing him to Oklahoma (and then to Louisiana).

I live in the snowy Midwest but my daughters have stayed in the same school system (from K-8 for the oldest so far, and no real indication we will leave anytime soom).

I could not imagine living in California again.

[hunter]

10. The only people getting hired are the "luckier" ones who just lost their jobs.

When your big box store closes maybe you get another job at the next big box down the road, getting paid less. It works the same in other businesses too. The people doing the hiring don't have to take a chance on the unknown. They can hire somebody who was doing the same job last week at a business that's going under.

Of course the kid out of high school or college doesn't get this job, nor does the guy who missed this window of opportunity.

It's like this in every business now. The kids fresh to the job market are shut out, older people are shut out, people returning to the job market after raising kids or recovering from major medical problems are shut out...

There's going to be hell to pay if this goes on much longer.