What is the job situation where you are? Overall, jobless claims have been lower compared to earlier this year, thanks to Obama’s stimulus package and signs of recovery in certain industries. The national unemployment rate is still up there though, and will expect to hit 10% by the close of this year. Despite the sour statistics, I’ve been hearing rumblings that this is the beginning of the end… of the recession that is. So the stock market is doing a happy dance right now, in response. But who knows what lies ahead?
Anyway, while things are seemingly improving across the nation, California’s recovery is less apparent. Our economy here is still in the doldrums. Beyond the California budget crisis to worry about, we’ve also got the fourth highest unemployment rate with almost 12% (11.9% to be exact) of workers marked as unemployed. Some of my colleagues are still looking around for jobs or are in between projects. Where I live, the job situation just doesn’t look too favorable. I actually found this colorful map that illustrates our plight: any region that’s green (0 to 10% unemployment) is in relatively better shape than areas in pink, red and purple (21% to 30% unemployment). Check it out!
Click on this link or the image below to play with the map (the slider on the graphic below won’t work, just click the pic to try out the tool):
So how is it in your neck of the woods?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
The general environment seems to be better these days with fewer people talking about the fear of layoffs or the loss of their investments and that kind of stuff. Things are looking up.
Funny you should write about this. I was just reading an article this morning that talks about the REAL unemployment rate, which is at 16%. You can find the article here. The reason the REAL rate is higher is that the government stats do not count those that would like to have a job but have stopped looking and those that are working fewer hours than they would like.
at the moment, i am in africa (east africa) and the situation is extremely terrible. but come to think of it, thats the way that it has always been. a college degree has normally been the only way that one can avoid tarmacing (that’s the slang word for a job search) but now its not working anymore. the sad thing is that the complacent career students are in denial and think that it will be different in their case. this leads to a very high competition for very few jobs. and the chain reaction proceeds. this then means that quality of education lowers further as students are not studying for degrees that they have a genuine interest in but are going for the ones that are rumored to pay the best. and it still goes on. this then means that they don’t grasp the concepts being taught and in the end, a substandard degree is obtained. it is a real mess in deep dark africa.
You know you’re in a bad situation when the green color on the map is used to indicate 10% unemployment.
I knew california was having problems. It’s still amazing that unemployment seems to more than double in less than 2 years. People say unemployment is a trailing indicator of the economy. So hopefully we are pulling of the recession now and unemployment will start falling over the next 6 months.
It’s actually pretty hopping up here in San Francisco. Restaurants are PACKED, and so is the night life. Traffic is congested, and the job market is really reviving again. It’s like the bull market is back, it’s incredible!
RB
Financial Samurai