California is the country’s worst jobless state, with nearly one-quarter of the state’s workforce either on unemployment insurance or waiting for another job.
A third of the population, or nearly 16 million people, are now either unemployed or on unemployment or food stamps, according to a new report from the California Association of Business.
The state’s jobless rate is now 11.3%, well above the national average of 7.6%.
That’s more than three times the national rate of 5.5%.
California’s unemployment rate was 9.9% in the second quarter of the year, but rose to 14.3% in March.
In May, it fell again to 9.4%.
“We’ve lost a great deal of jobs, particularly in the technology sector,” said John R. Lautenschlager, president of the California Chamber of Commerce.
“This is not just a California problem.
It’s a national problem.”
The recession hit hardest in the Silicon Valley area, home to Apple, Google and Facebook, but also in other parts of the country.
California lost nearly half its manufacturing jobs in the fourth quarter of 2014, the highest rate since at least the mid-1990s.
Many economists have argued that the economy is not yet recovered and that it could take longer to recover than many have forecast.
But the number of jobs lost this year has made the jobless recovery look even more likely.
“We are seeing a dramatic acceleration of the job loss, which is the most worrisome,” said Jason Furman, a former Treasury secretary under President Donald Trump.
California has a jobless-assistance program called the California Jobs Grant, which helps the state recover from the recession.
The state’s unemployment insurance benefits have been cut by about half in the last four years.
California’s job creation has been more than double what it was during the recession, when the unemployment rate in the state was 13%.
But the economy has slowed a bit as the state has adjusted to the recession and experienced its biggest downturn since the Great Depression.
The economy was growing at an annual rate of 2.6% in January and 2.8% in February, according the Labor Department.
But economists have been reluctant to attribute that growth to the job grant, arguing that the federal government has taken a back seat in the economy.
In a recent report, the California Labor Institute estimated that the job-creation boost is likely due in part to the fact that California’s population has grown to about 1.7 million people in the past two years, a record number.
But Lautenbach said that the state should be focusing on the broader economic recovery.
“Our job market is getting stronger, not weaker,” he said.
“There is a lot of uncertainty about the state economy, and the public’s confidence in the future is growing.
California needs to get on the right track.”
The unemployment rate for California workers has been well below the national total of 8.3%.
In the first quarter of 2015, the unemployment of California workers was 6.9%.
