California’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 percent in September, a record low since it started tracking the number this way in 1976, the Employment Development Department reported Friday.
The Bay Area boasted the state’s lowest unemployment rates, falling below 3 percent in eight of the nine counties, all but Solano, where it was still under the statewide average.
The San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose metro areas all posted unemployment rates that were the lowest for the month of September since 1990. They fell below the lows set in September 1999, the peak of the dot-com boom.
Economists cheered the numbers, coming 10 years after the financial crisis that sent the country into a tailspin, but said they may be overstating the health of the labor market. Wage growth is still subpar, with benefits and bonuses making up a growing percentage of total compensation. And the labor force participation rate, which measures the percent of the adult population with a job, is markedly below where it was 10 year ago. This suggests that there are still discouraged workers sitting on the sidelines who could be pulled back into the labor force if wages were more enticing and employers more willing to hire them. …
Click here to read the full article from the San Francisco Chronicle
And this is why I cannot drive down the freeway at any point in the day without major traffic in Orange County. Welcome to L.A.
And with all the additional building going up, freeways will not move after all new building is filled to capacity.
STOP ADDITIONAL CONGESTION BY ENDING ADDITIONAL BUILDING IN EXISTING CITIES!
So many people have dropped out of the labor pool that the conventional unemployment rate is practically meaningless.
These figures smell a little bad to me. On one hand we have record amounts of big business moving their companies out of the Communist state of California and on the other hand we are now asked to believe that we have RECORD LOW unemployment . Doesn’t seem to add up somehow unless the figures are really about most peoples unemployment benefits have run out and so they have fallen out of the system . Most likely the latter , both parties like to use this method to figure unemployment.
“This suggests that there are still discouraged workers sitting on the sidelines who could be pulled back into the labor force if wages were more enticing and employers more willing to hire them. …”
No, it suggests that employers are still waiting for that “perfect 10” candidate that meets all their requirements, AND is willing to work for 60-80% of the prevailing wages for the roles…AND is under 40 years old…
I believe we can see the unemployment rate change reflected by how many more cars are on the freeway at any given time. And it is a lot!!
No one mentions that a lot of jobs are staying open because our schools are graduating people with no employable skills. They are too bust turning our kids into socialists.