State Unemployment Rate Inches Up in August

California’s unemployment rate increased slightly form 12 percent to 12.1 percent in August, a loss of  8,400 during the month, according to a September 16 report issued by the state Employment Development Department.

The state’s workforce, not counting seasonal farm jobs, was just over 14 million — a net year-to-date gain of 98,500 jobs over 2010.

The U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged in August at 9.1 percent.

In August 2010, California’s unemployment rate was 12.4 percent. In august 2010, there were 171,000 less jobs than posted in August 2011.

Two surveys are used to calculate the unemployment rate. One is a federal survey of 5,500 California households and a state survey of 42,000 California businesses.

The federal survey estimates California’s workforce at 15,830,000 — a decrease of 18,000 from July. That’s down 58,000 jobs from that survey’s employment total in August of last year.

California’s unemployed totaled 2,175,000 – up 8,000 over the month but down by 83,000 compared with August of last year.

Excluding farm jobs, the department says 14,057,200 Californians were working in August, a net loss of 8,400 jobs since the July survey. July had a loss of 4,600 jobs over June.

### 

Gov. Jerry Brown made no comment on the numbers. Tom Del Beccaro, chair of the California Republican Party said this: 

“Almost 10 months into Jerry Brown’s administration and Californians still don’t know what his jobs plan really is, other than reaching into their pockets for new tax money. Republicans know that job creators need to start hiring again and when Jerry finally gets serious, we’ll be there, ready to work with him on real solutions.”

-30-