California Unemployment Hits High Of 12.6%

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's unemployment rate hit a modern record of 12.6 percent in March, though it rose only a fraction over the previous month, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

Non-farm payroll jobs increased by 4,200 as the economy shows signs of life. It was the third consecutive month that California added jobs, gaining 32,400 jobs so far this year.

More than 2.3 million Californians remained unemployed, with 362,000 more people jobless than a year ago.

California's jobless rate grew from 12.5 percent in February after holding steady for a month. The rate was 10.6 percent in March 2009.

Howard Roth, chief economist for the state Department of Finance, said the unemployment rate appears to be at or near its peak.

It was the first time since mid-2007 that the state saw job gains for three consecutive months. The department previously had reported a job loss in February, but revised those numbers Friday based on new data.

"I think this is for real," Roth said of the economic rebound. "We're seeing it in other statistics as well, personal income, taxable sales and housing prices."

The state lost an average of 115,000 jobs a month in the first quarter of 2009, compared with gains each month this year. There was growth in five of the 11 jobs sectors in March: mining and logging, manufacturing, education, health services and hospitality.

"It's a sign that people are at least feeling there are jobs, and they can actually look for a job," said Kevin Callori, spokesman for the Employment Development Department.

The construction, information, government, financial and professional services sectors lost jobs last month.

Roth expects the state's unemployment rate to remain high through 2011 in part because more people will start looking for jobs but may not find them right away. He noted the national unemployment rate, which remained unchanged at 9.7 percent in March, was down from its peak of 10.1 percent in October.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he is encouraged but said in a statement that the state needs to focus on training employees and giving employers incentives to hire them.

Michigan leads the nation with a 14.1 percent unemployment rate, followed by Nevada at 13.4 percent.

California was tied with Rhode Island for the third-highest jobless rate.

Comments

[Harrier]

12:25 PM on 04/18/2010

Republicans have removed and starved the state more decades. It is a state that has lost more military bases than any other state. It has lost more Federal money to support infrastructure. The Republicans even stopped it's efforts to reduce pollution. Republican deregulation of the electricity utilities has destroyed the state. All manufacturing has pretty much left the state as the level of university education has gone so far down. CA education system use to be the best in the world and a driving force in the state. Now it's the weakest thing they have.

[che guevara]

05:10 PM on 04/17/2010

please....more media b.s. propaganda.... the real number is over 25 percent & rising fast

[mamacat]

06:35 AM on 04/17/2010

While I have compassion for the millions of my fellows who are out of work, it sure feels good to be retired.

[santiago sherwood]

03:49 PM on 04/17/2010

I wish I was so lucky, But with the budget cuts we do not have the money to retrain these people. California was the engine of economic vanguards. Now reduced to a weak link in the worlds economy, Very sad.

[hibeam]

03:54 PM on 04/16/2010

Carly what we really need here is a bankruptcy liquidator. So if you know a good one send us the phone number. Bye for now from Democratic loony land.

[mountainweb]

05:53 PM on 04/16/2010

Yep, the democratic party in Cal has been digging this hole for a long time, with the aid of wacko environmentalism with no commonsense applied for YEARS. This is a test, can they stop spending more than they take in? Clearly going to have to be layoffs and a cut backs on payouts to illegal aliens and every deadbeat that they can find....

[hibeam]

03:49 PM on 04/16/2010

The Democratic Dunderheads in Sacramento. Not just bankruptcy, super duper bankruptcy.

[mountainweb]

04:15 PM on 04/16/2010

You have to admit that they have been working on driving the state into the ground for a long time, hard work pays off, sadly the wrong kind of pay off for the poor taxpayers.....The democratically controlled legislature is a massive failure....

[mamacat]

06:40 AM on 04/17/2010

The GOP has kept the legislature in lock-down mode for years. The 2/3rds rule makes the minority party as powerful as the majority party, who do have a large majority, but less than the requisite 2/3rds.

Before the GOP decided to shut down the U.S. Senate, using the 60 vote rule, they experimented by shutting down the Calilfornia legislature. It worked so well for them here, they decided to use the same strategy on the federal level - they shut everything down, and then say it is the fault of the party with the majority.

[cdecisneros]

03:21 PM on 04/16/2010

How is it possible that two states, Florida and California, that have Republican government can have double digit unemployement? It must be a liberal media trick.

[zombywulf]

01:34 PM on 04/16/2010

Gee Arnold you set another Record.