The California jobless rate has reac hed alarming proportions at 9.3% unemployed. The Los Angeles County unemployment rate, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, is 9.9%. Of coursse anyone knows that these number are merely approximations as it doesn’t reflect those who are either chronically unemployed or have seen their unemployment benefits run out. Rule of thumb is to add a couple, few percentage points to these numbers. At least.
These numbers are base don December statistics. Figure the temporary Holiday help that is probably back on the streets, among other concerns, and the number is liable to be even higher for January. Whoa, boy. None of this is good. People are getting laid off right and left, and some of the people looking for jobs are getting desperate. You can’t blame them. In one case I know, layoffs were announced Tuesday and Friday was their last day. Not a lot of notice there.
Close to 80,000 jobs have been lost in California as a result of the recession. As a company that conducts background checks we realize employment concerns in other parts of the country are pretty severe, they are not as dire as California. Part of it is the housing and construction market, which enjoyed a meteoric rise. Now with the economic downturn, the decline is even more dramatic.
Even the healthcare industry in Southern California is getting hard hit. Healthcare workers are being laid off. Hospital revenue is flat, and people are putting off elective surgery. In Southern California not have elective or cosmetic surgery is really an issue to take note of. We are talking a belt tightening operation, for sure, in the land of self-absorption. No liposuction, no nose jobs, breast augmentations. It has to be tough out there.
Not to make fun of conditions. There are many people out there who are just trying to make do, and their least concerns is elective anything. Eating, which is not an elective, and paying the mortgage is their major concerns. The kids, gas in the car, the usual stuff. What money people have is being spent on the necessities.
This too shall pass. When? It’s hard to say. The supposed experts know about as much as you do. It is all new territory. And like it or not, we are without a guide.