California Unemployment

California's economic growth revved up in February as employers added 41,200 jobs, one of the highest monthly gains since the Great Recession ended nearly four years ago. The payroll gains helped push the unemployment rate down to 9.6% from 9.8% in January, according to data released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. The growth in net new jobs, buoyed by increased consumer spending, was another positive sign for a state that has steadily gained jobs over the last year, hitting a monthly high of 74,000 in January 2012.

California's labor market picked up steam last month, according to figures released Friday, as the state's unemployment rate fell to 9.4% and employers added a net 25,500 jobs in March. The March rate was the lowest in California since Dec. 2008, when 9.2% of the state's labor force was out of work. Gains were mostly notched in the professional and business services sector and leisure and hospitality sector, according to data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. February's unemployment rate was 9.6%.

SACRAMENTO -- Close to 100,000 jobless Californians will lose as many as 20 weeks of federal unemployment insurance benefits in three weeks, state officials warned. The extra benefits of as much as $450 a week are part of a federal extension to the regular state program known in bureaucratic parlance as FED-ED. The federal government instituted FED-ED in March 2009 to help the long-term unemployed in California during the worst recession in 50 years. But that assistance, the fifth such extension of benefits, is set to expire on after May 12 because of improvements in the Golden State's economy and a drop in the unemployment rate to 11% in March.

California's economic growth revved up in February as employers added 41,200 jobs, one of the highest monthly gains since the Great Recession ended nearly four years ago. The payroll gains helped push the unemployment rate down to 9.6% from 9.8% in January, according to data released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. The growth in net new jobs, buoyed by increased consumer spending, was another positive sign for a state that has steadily gained jobs over the last year, hitting a monthly high of 74,000 in January 2012.

 California's unemployment rate in January fell below 11% for the first time in nearly three years. The percentage of jobless workers fell to 10.9% from a revised 11.2% in December, based on a household survey. The unemployment rate was 12.1% a year ago. The U.S. jobless rate for January and February remained steady at 8.3%. The improved state rate was offset by a 5,200 decline in total jobs in January, according to a separate survey of employers. At the same time, the California Employment Development Department posted an upwardly revised new jobs total of 38,500 for December.

California's stubbornly high unemployment rate rose even higher in July, climbing two-tenths of a percentage point to 12%, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday. It was the second straight monthly increase in joblessness as measured by a federal survey of households. California's unemployment rate was the second-highest in the nation, exceeded only by Nevada at 12.9%. The state's employers added a modest 4,500 new jobs to payrolls, according to a separate monthly check of businesses.

California's unemployment rate will remain elevated for the next couple of years, according to a new UCLA forecast, and in some parts of the state won't return to pre-recession levels until 2016. Still, the state's labor market is on the mend and is likely to heal faster than the nation as a whole, economists at the UCLA Anderson Forecast said Wednesday. California's jobless rate, which was 10.9% last month, is expected to fall to 7.7% by the end of 2014, just slightly above the U.S. average, the forecast said.

California's jobless rate dropped again in December and payrolls increased for a fifth straight month, boosting hopes that the state's economic recovery is showing some staying power. The unemployment rate fell to 11.1% in December from 11.3%, the Employment Development Department reported Friday. Employers added 10,700 workers to their payrolls last month on top of a revised 24,700 in November. For the year, California added 240,300 net jobs across a wide swath of the economy, including key white-collar industries such as business and professional services and information.

California's unemployment picture improved slightly in April, but a bit of good news brought little cheer to the thousands of college and high school graduates flooding into the worst job market in decades. Although the often volatile unemployment rate dropped to 11% from March's 11.2%, the Golden State still lost 63,700 jobs during the month. The number of people seeking work has swelled by 842,800 from a year ago, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

California employers added a relatively skimpy 7,100 jobs over the last two months, the government reported Friday, suggesting that the state's modest economic recovery may be slowing. The surprising job figures--which defy various other indicators portraying an improving state economy--also show California's unemployment rate leaping to 8.8% in November, from 7.8% the month before. Over the last two months, the state's job growth rate was barely one-third of what it was earlier this year.

California's jobless rate was unchanged at 9.8% in January for the second straight month, and that lack of improvement put the Golden State in a tie with Rhode Island for the worst unemployment in the U.S. On the other end of the spectrum, North Dakota had the lowest jobless rate, 3.3%, the government said Monday in releasing updated and revised employment data for all 50 states. California will release its county-by-county breakdown of jobs Friday, which economists expect will reflect the slow growth that is predicted in the state for 2013.

California's labor market slowed last month as employers shed 17,500 jobs in December and the unemployment rate remained unchanged. The state's jobless rate, which fell below 10% in November for the first time in nearly four years, stands at 9.8%, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, job figures for November were revised upward to show a net gain of 6,100 jobs that month. Quiz: How much do you know about California's economy?

SACRAMENTO -- About one out of three jobless people in California could lose up to $450 a week in federal unemployment benefits late next month, if Congress and the president don't reach a so-called fiscal cliff agreement. Failure to cut a deal on a complex bundle of proposed tax increases and spending cuts could leave 400,000 Californians and as many as two million people across the country without access to emergency federal assistance that's been available for the last four and one-half years.

The number of Americans filing for jobless claims barely moved last week, leaving more unemployed workers applying for benefits than analysts had expected. With 338,000 workers filing first-time claims during the week ended Saturday, according to the Labor Department , hopes for heady improvement in the labor market continue to shrink. Though that's 1,000 fewer applications than during the earlier week, initial unemployment benefits are still hovering around a three-month high last reached in January.

California's unemployment rate fell to 11.1% in December from 11.3% the previous month, but the state didn't budge from second place for the worst joblessness in the nation. Only the neighboring state of Nevada posted a higher rate with 12.6%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. Other states in the worst five were Rhode Island with 10.8%, Michigan with 10.5% and the District of Columbia with 10.4%. North Dakota posted the lowest unemployment rate at 3.3%, followed by Nebraska at 4.1%, South Dakota at 4.1%, Minnesota at 5.7% and Utah at 6%. In all, unemployment decreased in 37 states and the District of Columbia, three states had increases and 10 remained unchanged, the bureau said.

New claims for unemployment benefits fell again last week to 348,000, a new four-year low as the economic recovery continues to accelerate. There were 5,000 fewer people filing jobless claims last week than in the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The moving four-week average, a more reliable gauge than the weekly figures, also decreased by 1,250, to 355,000. The number of claims last week was the lowest since March 2008, when the effects of the just-beginning deep recession began hitting the labor market.