California Jobless Rate Continues to Climb

California lost another 39,300 jobs last month, almost 6 times the number of jobs lost in August. 14,100 jobs were lost in construction and 12,700 government jobs are gone. Shortfalls in the operating budgets of local governments across the state are blamed for the steep job loss in the government sector.

Although job losses accelerated, the unemployment rate dropped by .1% to 12.2% As we discussed this morning in our story about Minnesota, the seemingly contradictory numbers can be explained by long term unemployed falling off the assistance rolls.

Los Angeles unemployment is up to 12.7% but is dwarfed by the unemployment in places like Yuba County, at 17.8% and Imperial County, where the 30.1% unemployment makes it one of the highest jobless rate areas in the nation.