State deficit, sagging economy compound job woes

California

A worsening economic downturn and the state's $15 billion budget deficit are driving unemployment to its worst levels in a decade.

California's unemployment rate inched up a tenth of a percentage point last month to 6.9 percent, state officials said Friday. It was the highest unemployment in California since January 1997, when the state was still dealing with the lingering effects of the recession in the early 1990s.

California is now tied with Mississippi for the third-highest unemployment in the nation, behind Michigan's 8.5 percent and Rhode Island's 7.5 percent.

"It looks like it's not just housing now, it's other sectors," Roth said.

[the article conveniently didn't address what degree of job losses are due to employers moving out of state...]

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