California job losses remain highest in US
By Melissa Joffe
May 27, 2009 10:36 p.m.
A recent research and policy brief released by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Unemployment reported that job losses in California decreased, but remained higher than any other state in the country during March.
The institute’s brief, titled “California Crisis: Unemployment Outpaces U.S. in Recession on Labor and Employment,” was released on Friday.
“Some would say we’re still rolling downhill rapidly. We’re no longer falling off a cliff,” said Lauren Appelbaum, research director for UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Unemployment. “Based on those job numbers, California is still falling off a cliff.”
The research brief shows that the California March unemployment rate at 11.2 percent soared above the 8.5 percent national average. According to the statement, cumulative job losses of 608,000 in California since the beginning of the recession account for around one-tenth of losses in the country.
“We have not hit bottom,” Appelbaum said.
The research also shows that the unemployment rate only includes people who have actively searched for jobs in the last four weeks but fails to account for those who have become discouraged but would take a job if offered one.
Appelbaum said California has a few industries that have suffered most, including residential construction, manufacturing, technology and financial services.
According to the report, updated figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the month of April show that cumulative national unemployment has continued to rise since the beginning of the economic downturn 16 months ago. The report compares the current job decline to the 1981-1982 recession, which only lasted 16 months, demonstrating that the current recession is “not only longer, but it is deeper in terms of job losses than any other in the last 60 years.”
The Federal Reserve Board predicts that unemployment will continue to rise into 2010, according to Appelbaum.
Furthermore, the research brief asserts that although low-income workers tend to be the hardest hit in any recession, this recession has seen unemployment for college-educated workers rise to 4.4 percent, compared to 3.5 percent at the same point in the 1981-1982 recession.
UCLA Career Center Director Kathy Sims said that when California unemployment hovers above 11 percent, in reality only 4 percent of people applying for unemployment have a bachelor’s degree.
“Putting it in that context makes a big difference,” Sims said.
