Labor Statistics

California's unemployment rate in May hit 11.5% -- its highest level in more than three decades -- but the pain of losing work isn't being shared equally between the sexes. The state lost 68,900 jobs in May as unemployment rose from a revised 11.1% in April and 6.8% in May 2008. This is the highest rate since the national record-keeping system began in 1976. Out of every four jobs lost nationwide since the recession began in December 2007, three have been lost by men.

California's unemployment rate rose for the 11th straight month in February, hitting 10.5% as a recession-racked economy shed a higher-than-expected 116,000 jobs, the state reported Friday. The rate is up from 10.1% in January and is the highest since April 1983. All but one of 11 industries surveyed lost jobs, with construction the hardest hit.

California lost more than five times as many jobs in September as it did the month before, signaling that the state's employment woes continue despite a budding economic recovery. Employers cut 39,300 workers from their payrolls last month, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department, led by cuts in construction and government. A separate survey of joblessness showed that California's unemployment rate was 12.2% in September, down from a revised 12.3% in August.

Hopes that the economy could shake off the sub-prime mortgage mess and dodge recession grew fainter Friday as the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers last month added the smallest number of new jobs in more than four years -- driving the unemployment rate to a two-year high of 5%. Word that payrolls grew by only 18,000 jobs in December extended a string of negative economic news in recent weeks. Oil briefly touched $100 a barrel.

Recession fears surged Friday after the government reported that the economy lost jobs last month for the first time in more than four years because anxious businesses had cut back on workers, hours and wages. The monthly payroll report -- which many experts consider the most important indicator of the nation's economic health -- arrived as the presidential campaign heads toward its biggest primary day and voters say the economy is their top issue.

Here's more evidence that California is losing its struggle against recession: The state shed 20,300 jobs in January, more than the other 49 states combined for the month, a government report showed Friday. That comes on top of more bad news. California's job engine sputtered nearly to a halt last year, adding just under 15,000 positions, or 0.1%, to the state's payrolls, according to the Employment Development Department's revised annual figures, also released Friday.

The U.S. economy is sliding toward a recession -- if it's not already in one -- with at least three serious strikes against it: shrinking employment, plunging home prices and a financial sector at risk of paralysis. The latest piece of bad news landed Friday, when the government said payrolls fell by 63,000 jobs in February after losing 22,000 in January. Private-sector positions sank by more than 100,000 last month. The news sent the already depressed stock market sliding further.

With the government reporting the third straight month of job losses Friday and wages lagging behind inflation, the problems that originally centered on housing and financial markets now appear to have spread through almost every segment of the economy. The unemployment rate hit 5.1% in March, up from 4.8% in February and the highest level since the wholesale job losses that followed Hurricane Katrina in September 2005.

With baby boomers preparing to retire as the best educated and most skilled workforce in U.S. history, a growing chorus of demographers and labor experts is raising concerns that workers in California and the nation lack the critical skills needed to replace them. In particular, experts say, the immigrant workers needed to fill many of the boomer jobs lack the English-language skills and basic educational levels to do so.

California's jobless rate crept ahead Friday as experts saw weakness spreading into new areas of the economy. For months, job losses were concentrated in the state's housing industry. But with June's increase of one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.9%, it was evident that a broader downturn is underway. In all, the state lost 12,800 jobs in June compared with May. The number of government workers fell 6%, while professional and business positions declined 5.2%, manufacturing 4.