Calif unemployment climbs to record 11.5 percent | Hacker News Reader

Calif unemployment climbs to record 11.5 percent

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23 pointskqr213 comments

That number is scary because it means in some communities it is probably far, far north of 11.5%.

I live in a small town in central Japan. I think the official consolidated unemployment rate is probably in the 8% or so range. The unemployment among foreigners has been estimated at above 80%, since the car & electronics factories that employ most of them have been cutting temps like it is going out of style. (If you're wondering how that math possibly works, foreigners are about 3% of the town's population.)

The recession was a pretty academic concept to me until I went to church and found that our parish had lost 40 families in the past week -- they despaired of finding work in a decent time frame and left the country.

In Britain, unemployment is reported by the government at 7.2% - but for those aged between 16 and 24, it's hovering around the 20% mark.

And that doesn't count people who are studying but can't find work to support themselves while at university; they're counted as "in education" and don't appear on the unemployment figure. One wonders what sort of a rise we'll see this month and next as 600,000 people get dumped off the end of the education conveyor belt into this big bucket of shite.

But it's all okay. The "green shoots" are coming. House prices are rising modestly which apparently means we can all start leafing through luxury yacht catalogues again. Now, where's my application form for the minimum-wage job at the new £1 shop...?

It is probably higher - have a look at shadowstats.com to see the difference between the stated national rates, and the rates if computed using the old method.

All the data on that site seems to be behind a paywall.

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data

Has the relevant charts. More detailed info does cost, but the summary info is free.

I'm a subscriber. Let's see: the unemployment is currently at 9.4% officially, 20.5% according to shadowstats. Eyeballing it, I'd say Cali has unemployment of 22%. That's depression-era levels.

shadow stats won't disclose calculation methodology making it worthless and probably a scam.

Unemployment is not necessarily a bad thing. Just think about all the recently laid-off people whose jobs absolutely do not benefit society in any way. Predatory lenders are a great example.

We're at 12.4 just north in Oregon ... 2nd in the nation

14.2% in michigan

Yep. It is very very bad here if you are looking for work. As more workers get laid off it gets even harder. ANY job is tough to find, let alone white collar work. Even traditionally in-demand jobs like nurses and truck drivers have tightened up. Michigan has passed a good film incentive package but the jobs films generate tend to be temporary and the volume of films shooting in the state would have to be enormousness to make a big difference.

Michigan is a strange place to be living right now. There's still work for skilled technology folks if you look hard enough. What we don't have is work for the thousands of jobless factory/industrial workers. Growing up in Michigan, there were still people saying "My parents work for GM in the factory, I'm going to get a job right out of highschool - 30 and out, retire at 48." Unfortunately, all these people are now learning exactly how wrong they were. The age of plentiful factory work for anyone with a highschool degree is over in Michigan, and the statistics reflect this. The state is in a painful transition period - the country is feeling the effects as well. It's the end of industrialization and the beginning of a society based on service and technology. Unfortunately, Michigan, until recently, wasn't willing to admit that things were changing. Many of the jobless are in denial - that's why we lead the nation in unemployment.

    Legalize it, 
    yeah, 
    yeah, 
    and I will advertise it.

(and tax it)

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