2 Out of 5 Californians Are Jobless

So ... ~ 2 out 5 Californians are jobless, but at peak employment rate ~ 2 out of 5 Californians were also jobless? While a 7.4 drop is nothing to sneer at, if one if not familiar with the normal rate of unemployment 2 out of 5 sounds a lot more shocking than "down 7.4%".

Yup. In California there are actual housewives and househusbands and college brats still living at home and every now and then you'll find people who are chronically unemployed and /some/ of those people don't have anyone to support them! ...*sigh*... yay news...

this is scary, hard to believe

The way this article is written is extremely confusing, and I really don't understand why they didn't just talk about the statistics in terms of the percentage of unemployed adults who are actively seeking a job.

Strangely enough, an environment that is hostile to business and industry tends to scare potential employers off to other states.

Colt Seaver, you are hostile to logic. California is home to a a lot if not the most business in our country. In fact it is one of the top largest economies in the world. So in closing Colt Seaver, you are simply an illogical goof.

You are the one who is hostile to logic. Colt Seaver is correct. California is Very unfriendly to big business. Just look at Buck knives, The use to be located in El Cajon California, They moved their entire factory up to Idaho. The price for workers compensation was just too high for them in California. In closing try learning not to call people names, It hurts your arguement.

Beat me to it Max... there are tons of other examples of businesses that have either fled or chosen to expand in other states that are more friendly to business. We run a contracting company and were looking to relocate and wanted to move to lake Tahoe and ended up buying in incline village on the Nevada side of the border. The taxes were a major deciding factor in where to locate our business and home. Does that make me an "illogical goof"?

Gee...I wonder if it could have anything to do with all those illegal immigrants that California has welcomed and given welfare to.

Y'all listen here idiots. The primary reason why California is the leader in unemployment is not any of your idiot talking points about how it's hostile to business or illegal immigrants or anything. It's because California actually headed first into the housing market slump back in 2007, almost a full year before the rest of the nation did so.

We've been hemorhagging jobs well before it hit anybody else and right about now it's hitting everyone up the wazoo. The state government is not helping because of our ridiculous budget process that allows the Republican minority to tie up any means of increasing state revenue, and all together there is just a perfect storm of circumstances that lead to California and Florida being the worst off.

The majority of all capital flowing through both California and Florida largely stemmed from housing prices and the requisite boom it came with. It might be indicative of a level fo generalized California stupidity, but the number of home equity loads that came out of the state of california in yhe years leading up to the bust were significantly greater than any state in the nation. We are basically just the leading indicator of whatever should hit the world next.

I live in California. Colt Seaver is exactly right. Our state legislature is running people out of the state because they can't cut back on their spending and keep increasing taxes. We have one of the highest tax rates for businesses and individuals in the country. Businesses are subjected to all kinds of bureaucratic red tape because of our left leaning environmentalist government. Our state workers took a hefty pay cut through furlough days. A lot of other workers throughout the state have had to take pay cuts in lieu of layoffs (I took an 8% hit myself). There are also a lot of people that took early retirement, those that are underemployed and those that can only find part time jobs. When a business can move to business friendly states they are doing so. The state of California needs to smarten up, starting with the voting public.

I live in California, and I don't know a single person who is out of work. So I have to question the results here.

Tennessee is about the most "friendly to business" state you could ever imagine (so-called "right to work", which means extremely hostile to unions, low wages, few worker's rights, etc.), and what do you know-- our unemployment rate is almost as high as California's! The rate is several percentage points above states that actually protect workers' rights, such as Minnesota. There are NO JOBS here. I'm starting work as a nursing assistant next week for $10 an hour. How many of you want to do that job, running for 8-12 hours straight, and getting your hands as dirty as possible? How many of you want to take care of our sick and elderly for barely more than minimum wage and no benefits? That is what we are forced to do with an unemployment rate like that. My dad has been a union Teamster for 30 years and he will be lucky to get his pension; he's from the last generation of blue collar workers who will be able to do it, or to make a decent wage. Thank God I'm able to at least have a meaningful job where I can really help people,but I am so tired of people yapping away about taxes and parroting what they hear on right-wing talk radio as they sit in cushy jobs, never having to truly do any hard work. They need a dose of reality! I'd like to see you work as a teamster or a CNA for one day-- I guarantee you would NOT make it!

D Bozko and Colt Seaver.

Y'all aware that it's because Californians put in place a no tax hike on real estate that that is the primary reason we have such difficulty raising revenue right now, right?

Yes, it's true that California's tax base is almost ridiculously burdened upon the richest californians. It's also one of the tax-heavier states with regards to business. But at the root of the state revenue problem is not ye incredible liberal hippy government spending too much. It's because Californians of ALL stripes simply REFUSE to reinstate a major funding mechanism of state governance, which is the real estate and housing tax. It's been fixed at a ridiculously low rate for several several years now which is why the state tax funding model is so wonked. It's largely part of the reason why we're in the crapper. Yes, you're right, California does tax rich people more than any other state in the union. But seeing as how even they are not immune to the recession, we're even worse off as a state.

California's got an incredibly multitude of problems, least of all that many suspect its entirely ungovernable due to district gerrymandering and a 60% vote requirement to get anything done at all. But don't make it out to be as though it's ye horrible leftist liberal communist socialist pig dogs in Sacramento that are causing all the problems. The root of all problems spread the blame around pretty sufficiently.

Shut up, Cathy. You whine about your job and how bad it sucks, but guess what- you had to train to become a CNA which means you actively CHOSE to have that job where you :gasp: run and :gasp: get your hands dirty. If it's such a bad gig, then something else. You're just another politically immature sheep who just believes the same thing as daddy. Lucky to get his pension= the demands by the union for compensation were so unrealistic and unsustainable that they've bankrupted the company.