Sunday, November 20, 2011

California unemployment rate falls to 11.7 percent

SACRAMENTO ? California?s unemployment rate fell slightly to 11.7 percent in October from 11.9 percent a month earlier as the state added nearly 26,000 jobs in areas including professional and business services, education and health services, the state Employment Development Department said Friday.

The job gain is remarkable in light of the fact that the United States added a total of 80,000 jobs in the same period, said Michael Bernick, a former director of EDD who is now a fellow at the Milken Institute.

?This is one of the best job numbers, best job months we?ve seen in the past four years,? Bernick said. ?On the other hand, it?s still an economy that?s going to have a number of fits and starts. We still have a long way to go to make up those 1.4 million payroll jobs lost between 2008 and 2010, and we still have over 2 million Californians unemployed.?

California?s unemployment rate has hovered around 12 percent for months and has been stuck above 11 percent since 2009. The state?s jobless rate is the second highest in the nation, behind Nevada, which had a rate of 13.4 percent in September, the most recent data available.

California?s new payroll jobs were spread among various sectors of the economy, including some in the hard-hit construction field, which is a positive sign, Bernick said.

Steve Levy, an economist with the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, said the state?s urban coastal regions are leading the economic comeback, benefiting from the growth in technology, trade and tourism.

Job growth has also returned to the Inland Empire, which added 15,200 jobs in the last year, Levy said.

In October 2010, California?s unemployment rate was 12.5 percent. The state has added 192,000 jobs since January.

The national unemployment rate also dropped slightly to 9 percent in October.

About 495,000 people continue to receive unemployment insurance benefits in California, and nearly 69,000 new claims were received in October, the Employment Development Department said.

Source: http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=222986

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