California's employment misery continued in November, as employers sliced 10,200 more workers from their payrolls.
The statewide unemployment rate fell slightly to 12.3% last month from 12.5% in October, according to figures released Friday by the Employment Development Department, but only because thousands of discouraged workers have left the labor force or even moved out of state.
In some areas of California, including depressed urban neighborhoods in Los Angeles, 1 in 5 people in the labor force is out of work. The fallout from prolonged unemployment is pounding those regions as businesses close, homes tumble into foreclosure and frustration mounts.
In Los Angeles County, where unemployment fell to 12.4% in November from 12.7% in October, South Los Angeles areas such as Florence-Graham and Westmont and cities such as Compton are still posting unemployment rates over 20%.
Elsewhere in the state, some parts of Kings, Fresno and Imperial counties are experiencing unemployment rates that top 30%.
In South Los Angeles, many of the jobless were employed in construction, trade or manufacturing, which will recover slowly if they ever do, said Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University.
Even as jobs are created in healthcare, private education and technology, many blue-collar workers will lack the training and skills needed to qualify for these positions, he said.
"The prospects for people who do not have levels of skill and training is going to be extremely dim," Adibi said.
Desperation reigns in some areas of South Los Angeles, where the slightest prospect of employment can draw crowds. On a recent afternoon, dozens of people were lined up outside the offices of Providian Staffing on Florence Avenue, lured by a sign on the street that said "Free Jobs." They stood quietly, speaking to one another in Spanish and waiting for the line to move as tinny Christmas music played from a nearby store.
Several, such as 30-year-old Alfonso Duarte, said they had applied for dozens of jobs but had gotten no response. The former forklift operator, who has three children, was laid off a year ago. His car was impounded on Thanksgiving Day. He's separating from the mother of his children. And he barely has enough cash to pay for Christmas presents.
"I'll do anything, as long as it has my name on the paycheck," Duarte said.
