California Unemployment Lowest Since Stocks Crashed

There’s a lot of good news in the latest jobs report: In addition to June’s 30-thousand job gain, California’s disappointing May increase of 10,800 jobs was revised up to nearly 16,800.  And California’s unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percent to 8.5 percent.

“It’s moving in the right direction,” says Chapman University Economist Esmael Adibi.  “The unemployment is going down, job creation is picking up steam.  And I believe as we go through the year, we’re gonna see even better numbers.”

It’s also worth looking back to see how far California has come.  The state has added more than 250,000 jobs over the last year, and its unemployment rate has dropped more than two percent.  The last time the jobless rate was this low was when the stock market crashed in Fall 2008.

Still, while California is adding jobs at a faster pace than the nation, its unemployment rate still lags behind by nearly a full percentage point.