California: No help wanted

Just how bad do your fellow Californians have it these days? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released an update on employment and unemployment last week, and it’s a predictably depressing picture of how the nation’s economic downturn is directly affecting our state’s workforce. Now at 10.5 percent for February 2009, the unemployment rate is very near California’s historic 1983 high of 11 percent—only five states currently have a worse rate. Since last year at this time, the number of unemployed workers in California has jumped by 70 percent. In addition, according to the state Employment Development Department, Butte County’s unemployment rate has risen from 7.9 one year ago, to a whopping 12.7 percent.