Unemployment

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.

Unemployment in California shot up to its highest level in nearly 26 years in January, leaving more than 1 in 10 workers without a job. Figures released Friday show that 79,300 jobs were lost in the state last month, bringing the total number of unemployed to 1,863,000, or 10.1% of the workforce. That's the highest since the rate touched 10.4% in 1983. Conditions are even worse in Los Angeles County, which saw its unemployment rate jump to 10.5% in January from 9.2% the month before.

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.

For foreign professionals in the United States, the rising unemployment rate is especially daunting. Laid-off foreign workers are scrambling for temporary visas and seeking advice from immigration attorneys about how long they can legally stay in the country while hunting for jobs. Even some foreigners here on visas or work permits are switching employers, fearing that an unstable job during a recession could lead to a one-way ticket home or end their chance of getting a green card.

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.

The U.S. economy ended the worst year of employment losses since the Great Depression with an unexpectedly large drop of 85,000 jobs in December -- dimming hopes of a quick upswing in hiring and intensifying Washington's partisan fight over how to create more opportunities for workers. The unemployment rate for the month was unchanged from November at 10%, the government said Friday, but that was only because droves of people, including many discouraged about the prospects of finding work, dropped out of the labor force and were no longer counted as unemployed.

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.

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.

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.

Reporting from Sacramento and Washington Marc Lifsher -- A surprising drop in the nation's unemployment rate provided another strong indication that the recession has hit bottom, but analysts warned that it still would take months for the economy to climb out of its deep hole. The decline in the jobless rate to 9.4% last month from 9.5% in June came as the nation lost 247,000 more jobs in July, bringing the total since the recession began to 6.7 million. But July's losses were fewer than expected and a far cry from the 645,000 job losses the economy averaged each month from November through April.