"We'll come back," he said. "This is a temporary problem but it will be a tough one. . . . The social costs are going to be fairly high with such a large number of unemployed. The pressure on families will be enormous."
Joblessness in the Inland Empire grew by 61,500 in the year from October 2007 to October 2008 -- a 54.1% increase amounting to a total of 175,100 people out of work, according to the California Employment Development Department.
A large chunk of those unemployed came from the construction industry, which shed 15,500 jobs, or 14.1% of its workforce, over the 12-month span. Manufacturing was responsible for 7,600 lost jobs, a 6.5% decline, and retail lost 5,800 jobs, a 3.3% drop.
The most recent federal statistics for the nation's 49 metropolitan areas with 1 million or more residents showed the Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario area worst in unemployment at 9.1%.
The figure -- which is based on reports up to September -- is eight-tenths of a point higher than the second-worst region, the Detroit metropolitan area.
Kemp of Beacon Economics expects the unemployment rate in the Inland Empire to grow as high as 12.4% before coming down in the later part of 2010, largely because he believes consumer confidence could improve, leading to an increase in demand for the region's available space.
"If you look beyond the short-term losses, the Inland Empire is poised to see not only normal growth but accelerated growth," Kemp said. "It's the path for expansion in California."
But with the immediate outlook crumbling, the whiplash of change has jarred residents and officials who worry their communities are teetering on despair.
"You see less people at the restaurants and carwashes," said Riverside Mayor Ronald Loveridge. "There is real pain almost everywhere you turn. My daughter is a counselor at Riverside Community College and she told me she met a [student] whose house was up for foreclosure. Her last resort would have been to move in with her parents, but their home is up for foreclosure. All over there are statements of personal tragedy."
Loveridge said he was girding his city for a $14-million cut out of its $214-million budget. And Riverside is but one of many local governments reeling from the state deficit and decreasing tax revenues brought on by the real estate crisis.
