Good Signs: State’s Unemployment Rate Drops Again; New Labor Force Data

Inch-by-inch, economic reports on the state of California are improving—ever so slightly. The Employment Development Department has released its latest figures, which show 6,600 new jobs were added during the month of November. Consequently, the unemployment rate now stands at 11.3%, thereby making November the fourth straight month in which the jobless rate has declines. In October it was at 11.7%. The latest rate is the best the state has experienced since the worst of the recession dealt California (and the nation) a blow back in 2009 and now the country’s overall unemployment rate stands at 8.6 percent.

Since 2011, the state has added a total of 211,400 jobs. The LA Times reports on the following additional details about the report:

“Similar drops were registered in major regions: Los Angeles County is down to 11.9% from 13% a year ago; Riverside-San Bernardino counties to 12.5% from 14.5% a year ago; Orange County to 8.1% from 9.4% a year ago; and Ventura County to 9.5% from 10.9% a year ago. While economists caution that some of the improvement in the November numbers could be caused by people giving up on job searches, they point to the last two weeks' decline in the number of people putting in first-time claims for unemployment insurance benefits as a positive sign that a sustained recovery is underway.”

You can find unemployment rates and job figures for each of the state’s 58 counties on page 4 of this report.