Calif. unemployment rises, but state gains jobs

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Phyllis Lawyer, who lost her job last month, uses a phone at the California Employment Development Department office in Sacramento, Calif., to check on her unemployment insurance benefits, Friday, June 19, 2009.

California’s unemployment rate climbed to 12.5 percent in October. That’s up slightly from the month before, and the highest it’s been since World War II. But the Golden State saw some signs of job growth.

More than 2.4 million Californians were without work in October. Despite that, the state’s economy actually added more than 25,000 new jobs last month. Economist Jerry Nickelsburg of UCLA’s Anderson Forecast says the problem is that the state isn’t creating jobs fast enough to accommodate all of the new people looking for work. But he says there are some encouraging signs in the October numbers.

"This is the first month since this recession really got going that we’ve seen payroll jobs being created," said Nickelsburg, and the signs are even more positive when you learn which sectors created the jobs: business and professional services, health care, and education.

"So you’re getting job growth all across the sectors that we expect to lead California out of the downturn, " he says.

In Los Angeles County, the unemployment rate hit 12.8 percent last month, far above the national rate. The South Bay Workforce Investment Board has been charged with chipping away at joblessness in the county. It received 160 million federal stimulus dollars to create subsidized jobs. Executive Director Jan Vogel says the agency uses that money to actually pay workers in transitional jobs.

"We’ve had so many examples of people that are doing so well," says Vogel. "They're working at colleges, they're working some at private companies, at school districts, and cities."

So far, the South Bay Workforce Investment Board has placed about 2,300 workers. Its goal is 10,000. The stimulus money runs out in about a year. So the Board is trying to get the word out to businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies that need employees, but can’t afford to pay them.