The Employment Development Department released their annual figures Friday, and it seems the outlook for the California economy is bleak. The state has lost 20,300 jobs in January, which is more than the other 49 states combined. The hardest hit industries were construction, information and financial services, with the Writer’s Strike and the fledging housing sector both playing significant roles in the decrease of available jobs.
California’s unemployment rate is 5.9% while the nation, as a whole, boasts of a rate of 4.9%. The US economy has lost 17,000 jobs total for the month of January, far less than California alone, revealing that the state’s job losses were offset by gains in other states. Economists calculate that this downturn in employment signifies that California may be heading into a recession. If current trends hold, estimates reveal that the unemployment rate could reach as high as 6.3% by the end of the year.
With job growth at a virtual standstill, economics professor at Chapman University, Esmael Adibi, woefully reports that this news is truly, “a very grim forecast.”
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-jobs1mar01,1,1274285.story
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