California's unemployment rate hits 12.2% in August

[UpInArms]

Source: Los Angeles Times

California's jobless rate set a fresh postwar high in August, rising to 12.2% from 11.9% in July and putting more pressure on the state's tattered unemployment insurance fund.

Though the state may be in the early stages of an economic rebound, the latest figures underscore what many economists fear: There is no obvious engine of job growth to put California's more than 2.2 million unemployed residents back to work quickly.

<snip>

Still, the sheer number of Californians out of work -- and the lengthening duration of their joblessness -- is worrisome to economists and public officials. Nearly 30% of the state's unemployed have been out of work at least 27 weeks.

California's unemployment rate is well above the national rate of 9.7%. And it's the fourth-highest in the nation; only Michigan, Nevada and Rhode Island, at 15.2%, 13.2% and 12.8%, respectively, are faring worse. Unemployment will not decline until industries such as renewable energy, healthcare and construction experience significant growth, economists say. Most don't expect that any time soon.

<snip>

Hacienda Heights resident Robert Dumas, 52, and his son Michael, 20, were laid off from a plumbing fixtures manufacturer on the same day in February. They lost their health insurance, applied for food stamps and are coming dangerously close to defaulting on their home loans, said Robert's wife, Donna.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-jobless19-2009sep19,0,1171726.story

[rfranklin]

1. It's actually over 20% by government figures and probably more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/business/economy/15leonhardt.html?_r=2&ref=business

Part-Time Workers Mask Unemployment Woes Sign in to Recommend

by DAVID LEONHARDT

Published: July 14, 2009

In California and a handful of other states, one out of every five people who would like to be working full time is not now doing so.


After Richard Smith, 58, was laid off from jobs at two carmakers, he moved to Charlotte, N.C., and found only part-time work. He makes $9.50 an hour repairing clubs at a Golf Galaxy store.

It is a startling sign of the pain that the Great Recession is inflicting, and it is largely missed by the official, oft-repeated statistics on unemployment. The national unemployment rate has risen to 9.5 percent, the highest level in more than a quarter-century. Yet it still excludes all those who have given up looking for a job and those part-time workers who want to be working full time.

Include them — as the Labor Department does when calculating its broadest measure of the job market — and the rate reached 23.5 percent in Oregon this spring, according to a New York Times analysis of state-by-state data. It was 21.5 percent in both Michigan and Rhode Island and 20.3 percent in California. In Tennessee, Nevada and several other states that have relied heavily on manufacturing or housing, the rate was just under 20 percent this spring and may have since surpassed it....

--more at the link--

[northernlights]

4. when the fuck are they going to stop referring to part time workers

who "want" to work fulltime, and correctly refer to them as part time workers who *NEED* to work full time. Most part time jobs are not a living wage.

I'm so fucking sick of the insidious ways they make it somehow not such a deal. As if it's a "luxury" that you "want" to work full time instead of the reality that it's a "necessity" that, as it continues to be deined, will cause everything to spiral down the toilet. :grr:

[Yo_Mama]

5. Amen

refer to them as part time workers who *NEED* to work full time. Most part time jobs are not a living wage.

I've been in near shock since seeing the CA stats yesterday. This is a great point you are making. The real rate of unemployment and underemployment has reached shocking levels.

The way official unemployment is calculated is that you have to have looked for work actively during the past four weeks to be included, and if you worked one hour of one day during the reference week, you count as employed. Thus someone who mowed a lawn for $15 bucks shows up as "employed".

The government truly needs a jobs program. This has gone too far.

Plus inflation is beginning to pick up again, and local taxes and fees are rising, which is going to cut the very meager incomes many people now have.

I am an economist, and I think the government is getting distracted by information on reports and not paying attention to the underlying trends.

[nc4bo]

2. Remember, it's a deeeeeeeeeeep recession. Lather, rinse, repeat. nt

[lunatica]

3. I just received my lay off letter in UC Berkeley.

I have two part times jobs there. One of them is laying everyone off. It's scary.

[Yo_Mama]

6. I just received my lay off letter in UC Berkeley

Sorry. That's all I can say, but it is heartfelt. There is nothing worse than to get a layoff letter when unemployment is in double digits.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. sorry. Hope you are back among the 88% soon

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. Is your other part time job safe?

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. Yep and the University of California paycuts kick in on Oct 1 - 100s of thousands getting paycuts

[alp227]

8. I'm a Californian college student and have been unemployed since June

I'm part of the 12% the state knows is unemployed. The "hiring lines" have extended really long at the places I've applied to.