As bad as the national unemployment data has been, California’s is much worse:

“California continues to bleed jobs, more so than most of the rest of the country. The national unemployment rate for May was 9.4%, and only four states had higher jobless numbers than California: Michigan at 14.1%, Oregon at 12.4% and Rhode Island and South Carolina, tied at 12.1%.

California, which has 11% of the country’s workforce, accounted for 1 out of every 5 jobs lost last month. The state has been vulnerable to paralyzing inactivity in fields related to real estate, including construction, financial services and home-related retail sales . . .

A trio of economic reports predicted that the upswing won’t happen before early next year. Recent forecasts from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Chapman University and Beacon Economics, a Los Angeles consulting firm, predict that unemployment in the state will peak between 12.1% and 12.8%, possibly as early as year’s end.”

Given the extent of the Residential Real Estate boom and bust in the golden state, this comes as no surprise . . .

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Source:
California unemployment rises to record 11.5% in May ^[1]
Men lose jobs more than women. Only four states have higher unemployment rates than California. The national jobless rate is 9.4%.
Marc Lifsher and Alana Semuels
LATimes, June 20, 2009

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-jobless20-2009jun20,0,3863292.story