California Unemployment Rate
California's labor market has not yet shown much sign of recovery from the recession that began in 2001. As in the rest of the nation, employment has been flat to down, the California unemployment rate has remained at elevated levels, and the jobless are facing increasingly lengthy spells of unemployment.
To address the national unemployment problem, the federal government recently renewed legislation that provides extra weeks of Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits to unemployed workers who have exhausted their regular UI benefits. The impact of this legislation will vary not only across states, but also across regions within large states, according to their unemployment rates and the duration of California unemployment spells.
August 2005 was the lowest California unemployment rate since October 2001. That's thanks to an increasing number of self-employed people, because the number of Californians drawing a paycheck from an employer fell by 17,300, the California EDD says.
The jobless rate encompasses the entire labor pool, including the self-employed, and that number has seen increases for several months, the California EDD says.
When people working out of their spare bedrooms and car trunks are counted, the number of Californians holding jobs in July was 16,585,000, a record high for employment. This was an increase of 44,000 from June, and up 308,000 from the employment total in July of last year.
Santa Clara County's July unemployment rate was 6.3 percent, representing an estimated 55,500 adults out of work and looking for a job.
In this Economic California Unemployment Chart, it shows data from the monthly national household survey to assess the depth of California's state and regional unemployment problem and the extent to which the UI extension addresses it.
California Employment Highlights - August 2005
The Unemployment Rate Holds Steady at 5.2 Percent; Nonfarm Payrolls
Increase 17,200 Jobs.
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Labor Market Information Division |
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