Thread: Los Angeles County 9.9% unemployment rate

California unemployment rate jumps to 9.3% in December

The jobless rate, up from 8.4% in November, is the highest in 15 years, highlighting the severity of the economic slowdown.

The rate in Los Angeles County was 9.9%.

By Marc Lifsher
12:20 PM PST, January 23, 2009

Reporting from Sacramento -- California's unemployment rate jumped to 9.3% in December -- the highest in 15 years -- and with more layoffs expected, economists predicted even higher numbers for the rest of the year.

The state Employment Development Department today reported that the December jobless rate was up almost a full percentage point from 8.4% in November. It stood at 5.9% a year earlier.

The rate for Los Angeles County, which like the state number is seasonally adjusted, was 9.9% for December, up from a revised 8.9% for November.

"It's an ugly report," said Howard Roth, chief economist for the state Department of Finance. "We're in the grips of a formidable recession," with the highest unemployment since January 1994.

The new data reflected lackluster holiday sales, continued home value declines and a heightened tempo of layoffs at companies across all sectors of the economy.

The widespread layoffs are turning job hunts into a desperate business for people such as Adriean Arreola, 27, of Boyle Heights. "You've got to stay positive, but the economy is falling," he said while looking for postings at a job center in the San Fernando Valley. "So, it can be hard."

Two months ago, Arreola lost his job at a computer disposal warehouse. He said he's had to put his two children into foster homes until he can find a new job. "I'll take anything," he said.

The recession translated into the net loss of 78,200 payroll jobs in December on top of an upward-revised estimate of 73,500 jobs in November.

Indeed, the pace of job losses has been accelerating from an average of 6,600 a month during the first half of 2008 to 36,400 a month in the second half of the year, Roth said.

"This thing is still getting worse," he said, adding that the unemployment rate could hit 11% in 2009.

Job cutbacks keep on coming. In the first 10 days of this year, large and medium-size employers notified the Employment Development Department that they planned to fire about 19,000 workers. That's about 40% of last year's total of 48,600. The layoffs ranged across industries of all kinds, large and small. Boeing Co. announced satellite-related job cuts in El Segundo. Circuit City consumer electronic stores are being closed all across California, as are organic juice plants in Azusa and Glendora.

"What's happening is the weakness that originally was in construction and financial services has spilled over to everywhere," said economist Esmael Adibi of Chapman University in Orange.

Even the area of education and healthcare, the single employer category among the 11 surveyed by the state that added jobs in December, is trending toward being flat, Adibi said.

"We're not getting any energy or oomph from the sector that typically is recession proof," he said. "Hospitals are getting nervous because some elective surgeries are being postponed."

Health workers in Orange County have been particularly hard hit. Among employers filing layoff notices with the state for January is the Irvine Regional Hospital and Medical Center, which reported that it planned to lose 510 workers this month.

marc.lifsher@latimes.com

Times staff writer Nathan Olivarez-Giles contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-c ... 8467.story

More Mexicans live in Los Angeles than any other city in the world except for Mexico City,

so I guess this is really affecting the legal and illegal Mexican residents of L.A.

As long as the "hard-working" illegal aliens have jobs and freebies, it's all ok eh? When will more Californian taxpayers scream ENOUGH and demand enforcement?

When will the COC, and businesses realize they will FAIL without American consumers buying their products?

When will the NEA and health organizations realize that it's TAXPAYERS who are losing their jobs (to non-taxpaying illegal aliens) and there's NO MORE money for educating illegal aliens and giving them free health care?

When will these bleeding hearts WAKE UP?!?!

The stats are probably not counting the folks who no longer are trying to find work and no longer eligible for unemployment. I have heard that about 13% of people in this country are unemployed. But I have not heard whether all those unemployed are here legally, as that is a statistic that does not fit the political agenda.