Unemployment

Unemployment in California shot to 11.2% in March, the highest level since the state began keeping records. What's more, the number of people out of work for almost a year rose by 9.4%, and has now doubled in the last 12 months. Carpenter Luiz Vasquez knows the frustration all too well. In the last year, he said, he worked only two weeks. "I go through town, and I do not hear the sound of work," said Vasquez, 40, who is seeking help through a Chrysalis job center in Santa Monica.

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 jobless rate reached a fresh post-World War II high in July, climbing to 11.9%, a sobering reminder that though the nation's deep downturn may be nearing its end, the state's employment woes are far from over. Golden State employers cut their payrolls by 35,800 jobs in July, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. That's a significant improvement over monthly losses that averaged 76,000 over the first half of the year. Still, July's numbers were worse than some analysts had expected, rising from 11.6% in June and led by declines in trade, construction and manufacturing.

California's rising unemployment rate is driving a steep increase in child support cases, as the newly jobless appeal for increases in monthly payments or argue that they can no longer afford the amounts ordered by the court. In Los Angeles County, about 450 new cases are filed each day, double the amount at this time last year. More than 3,000 calls come in daily -- up 25% -- increasingly from custodial parents asking child support staffers to crack down on deadbeats.

The pace of job losses slowed considerably during the month of April, adding to hopes that the nation's steep economic downturn may be nearing a bottom. Employers cut 539,000 jobs last month, the fewest in six months and significantly fewer than the 699,000 jobs that had been lost the previous month, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday. Still, the job market for Americans is difficult and getting worse. The nation's unemployment rate climbed to 8.

Jeanne Eslinger Branthover leans in and listens intently as a laid-off Wall Street executive describes how she's coping in a miserable job market. The woman, blindsided by her layoff from a big investment bank, tells how she puts on a business suit every day and diligently commutes into Manhattan to look for work. "Good girl, good girl," Branthover says. "At the end of the day, things are going to get better. You're going to get employed. It's just when, and don't give up on it."

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 shed 66,500 jobs in June, and more losses loom as double-digit unemployment spreads to state and local governments, once reliable bastions of employment security. June's 11.6% unemployment rate is a post-World War II record. Professional services, construction and trade continue to top the state's jobless categories. But in a troubling sign, governments -- a stable part of the state's economy for a decade -- have been laying off thousands of workers in recent months.

More than 236,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in California last year, topping the previous nine years combined, data released Tuesday show. And the number of borrowers who defaulted on their payments hit a record high of more than 404,000. The wave of foreclosures, which began in early 2007, was initially triggered by falling home values and resets on adjustable-rate loans.

Optimism that the end of the recession is in sight may be growing, but the U.S. unemployment rate, which reached its highest level in a quarter of a century last month, is likely to keep rising for some time to come. With a net 663,000 jobs eliminated in March, the unemployment rate jumped to 8.5% from 8.1% in February. Since the economy began contracting at the end of 2007, company payrolls have shrunk by more than 5 million positions.