Misblog

Originally Published June 04, 2009; Last Updated March 19, 2010; Last Republished March 19, 2010:

Web:

• UPDATED 03/20/2010 Reuters, Unemployment soars in U.S. metropolitan areas.

  ..."California has been especially hard hit during the recession that began in late 2007, and the Labor Department data showed the state's jobs situation continues to deteriorate, with an overall unemployment rate of 12.5 [seasonally adjusted; unadjusted is 13.2%] percent in January."...-Reuters--

  When unemployment beyond the official U3 is added (e.g. U4-U6; refer to BLS for definitions) the unemployment rate is significantly higher.

• UPDATED 02/05/2010 Reuters, Jobless rate falls to 9.7 percent, 20,000 jobs cut.

• UPDATED 01/29/2010 Reuters, Economy soars 5.7 percent, fastest in 6 years and NYT, U.S. Economy Grew at Fastest Pace in 6 Years Last Quarter and BEA, Gross Domestic Product: Fourth Quarter 2009 (Advance Estimate)

  The GDP advance number for fourth quarter 2009 is 5.7%, which primarily reflects decreasing inventories (≈3.3%) and less imports as a result of our continuing record job loss and high local and national unemployment numbers.

  "The acceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected an acceleration in private inventory investment, a deceleration in imports, and an upturn in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by decelerations in federal government spending and in PCE."--BEA--(emphasis added)

  In a normal recession decreasing inventories would be good news because the assumption would be business will eventually hire to replace the diminished inventories—as we know this is anything but a normal recession.

  Aggressive investment in our future infrastructure and education and next generation jobs must continue.

• UPDATED 01/20/2010 ProPublica, Unemployment Insurance Tracker

• UPDATED 01/09/2010 NYT, Obama Tries to Turn Focus to Jobs, if Other Events Allow.

  More than $2.3 billion government seed money with matching $5 billion private capital is needed to reduce the unemployment. Tinkering around the edges hoping things improve does not seem like an optimal strategy.

  How about a massive investment in education, retraining, infrastructure, and transition resources instead of massive sunk costs in perpetual conflicts!

Res:

• Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Unemployment Map Oct 2009, California¹
• California Unemployment Rate and Labor Force and California Labor Force & Unemployment Data (download monthly historical data)
• Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Unemployment Map Apr 2009, California

-----notes-----

1. BLS October 2009 data for California counties may not be available, yet.

The preliminary figures are often revised at later dates and may vary from the preliminary, not seasonally adjusted figures used in this table.

2. See also Bureau of Economic Analysis, County Compensation by Industry, 2008

3. California's December 2009 data have not been published, yet (scheduled for release January 22, 2010). Unfortunately, the data are expected to show little improvement from November 2009 (12.3%).

UPDATED 01/25/2010 There was a .2% decrease in December 2009 overall unemployment (12.1%).

UPDATED 03/19/2010 There was a 1.1% increase in January 2010 overall unemployment 13.2% (12.5% seasonally adjusted)

4. UPDATED 02/05/2010 The invesigative journalists over at the not-for-profit ProPublica are tracking state unemployment insurance funds.