Job Spectrum

The state rate of unemployment held steady at 12.5 % in Feb regardless of the loss of 20,400 payroll roles, as the work market languishes at what could be a bottom while 2.27 million unemployed Californians wait for hiring to pick up.The rate of unemployment did not rise, regardless of the job losses, because these 2 figures are worked out from separate surveys that occasionally give seemingly paradoxical signals about the employment standing of the approximately eighteen million-strong California work force.

But economic gurus say Friday's report from the Work Development Office implies that the nation's job engine is slowly moving out of reverse. "March and April will be the 1st tests of how swift the recovery might be, as job levels are predicted to rise in the state and the nation, " said Stephen Levy, with the Center for the continued Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto. Additionally to the statewide figures, Friday's report offers photos of the job picture in major urban regions. In the two-county South Bay that could be a stand in for Silicon Valley, Ruth Kavanagh, work market researcher for the Work Development Dept , noticed a flicker of hope.

Seasonally changed, nonfarm payrolls in Santa Clara and San Benito counties have risen for the last 3 months - the 1st such string of hiring gains since Apr 2008. The gains are tiny. South Bay payrolls have expanded by 2,400 over the three-month period to a total of 842,000 roles - virtually eighty thousand jobs below the Apr 2008 level."But it's a positive movement, " she claimed.

The recession has wiped out about 1,000,000 roles statewide and 270,000 in the Bay Area.Regional expert Jon Haveman with Beacon Economics in San Rafael claimed it will take many months of gains in the 30,000- to 50,000-job range to modify the hiring outlook. "It's likely to be a long and rough recovery, " he revealed. Work lawyer Michael Bernick, a previous director of the Work Development Office , noted that staffing services gained roles in Feb , an optimistic sign as bosses regularly bring on short lived employees at the outset of hiring recoveries.

While conditions are gradually improving, many job seekers face bleak prospects. The dept asserts 803,000 Californians have been out of work for twenty-seven or even more weeks. Long term unemployment has been one of the wicked traits of this recession. Lengthy spells without a paycheck strain private and family finances and make it even tougher for folks to get back to work because their talents get off and bosses might look at them as damaged products. Regular unemployment insurance benefits last twenty-six weeks, but in this recession Congress has lengthened the payment period to so long as ninety nine weeks in a chain of non-permanent extensions, the latest of which ends on Apr five.

Legislation to increase the suitability for long term benefits beyond that cut off point appears to once have been stalled by a filibuster in the Senate. Work dept spokesman Loree Levy related the dept is monitoring the situation and working out what percentage of the 1.48 million Californians now receiving benefits will face cutoffs. "It makes things very perplexing for our customers, " Levy announced.