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Workers give up in Los Angeles
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The unemployment rate has been falling lately in Los Angeles County, but not for the right reasons.
Last month, the jobless rate for the county fell to 11%, down from 12.4% a year earlier.
While that’s far higher than the 8.1% unemployment rate for the nation as a whole, it nevertheless seems to show progress for the City of Angels… right?
Wrong. In Los Angeles, the falling unemployment rate is slightly misleading, just as it has been for the country overall.
When surveyed by the government, fewer L.A. residents say they’re unemployed compared to a year ago. But it’s not because they’re finding jobs. It’s because they’re dropping out of the labor force altogether.
Just over 100,000 of workers have left the Los Angeles labor force since the beginning of the year, according to seasonally adjusted data from the California Employment Development Department.
The decline stands in stark contrast to other major metropolitan areas. New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., and San Francisco are all seeing their labor forces grow.
So what’s going on in Southern California?
The real estate boom and bust hurt L.A. far more dramatically than those other cities, and a lack of construction jobs may partially explain why some workers have stopped looking for employment. Construction jobs have recently started to come back slowly, but in L.A. they’re still off by about 50,000 jobs from 2007 levels.
Other large Western cities affected by the housing bust, like Las Vegas and Phoenix, have also reported declining unemployment rates over the last year, partly due to their shrinking labor force.
Barry
September 29th, 2012
This will help things:
California is First (to Offer State-Managed Pensions for the Private Sector)
http://ricochet.com/main-feed/California-is-First-to-Offer-State-Managed-Pensions-for-the-Private-Sector
Mountain Dog
September 29th, 2012
The hill in the picture has a cross on it that looks out of place since the city of Los Angeles chose to remove the cross from the county seal in order to avoid an ACLU lawsuit.
Things do go downhill fast when they are busy removing God from government.
apple pie
September 29th, 2012
“Things do go downhill fast when they are busy removing God from government.”
M. Dog nailed it.
bitterclinger
September 29th, 2012
Speaking of real estate, my neighbor is looking into a refi and said she had an interesting conversation with the loan officer. (She and her hubby are still trying to sell their previous houses (they owned free and clear) before buying the foreclosure they snapped up three years ago.
The loan officer said the 20% down previously required to buy a house is down to 3% now and there are all sorts of goodies available to boost Zero’s bragging stats before Election Day.
srsly?
September 29th, 2012
you know …. there’s two kinds of working people in the world..
legal and
FUCKING ILLEGAL FUCKING ALIENS
is it REALLY YOUR fault that you’re UN/UNDERemployed?
scr_north
September 29th, 2012
In terms of reporting an unemployment rate we have the same issue up here. There is a significant percentage of the population that is capable of working, wants to work but has given up trying to find work and when that happens they get taken off the “official” unemployment rate. I think this is a travesty. When reporting on the unemployment rate is done that group is only sometimes reported on and only in passing toward the end of the article. It should be mandated that the group of workers that have given up should be reported beside the group that is still looking and be combined together to show the real unemployment rate.
Tim
September 29th, 2012
Mendacity. Prevarication. Lies. Damned Lies.
Even if one isn’t looking for work, one is still UNEMPLOYED!
Even if one is on welfare, one is UNEMPLOYED!
One is UNEMPLOYED if one has NO EMPLOYMENT!
Our government’s only tools are lies and force.
Stranded in Sonoma
September 29th, 2012
Yep. Unemployment still at 23%.