California unemployment rate holds steady in March

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — California’s unemployment rate held at 5.3% for March, the highest in the nation.

The news comes as the Golden State already grapples with a massive budget deficit.

The unemployment rate has slowly been climbing for the past few months. It was 5.1% in December and 5.2% in January before reaching 5.3% in February.

There were 1,032,400 Californians without jobs in March — 4,000 more than February. That figure represents an increase of 170,500 compared to March 2023, according to the monthly report from the state’s Employment Development Department.

The state processed 41,000 initial unemployment claims during a March sample week. That was a 260 decrease from the month before and a drop of 5,792 from March 2023.

A total of 446,130 people certified for unemployment insurance in March, compared to 425,760 people in February and 414,119 in March 2023.

Colusa County kept its spot with the highest unemployment, at 19.2%. Imperial County was second, at 16.1%, while Tulare County followed with 12%. The stats are slight improvements for the counties over February.

San Mateo County had the lowest unemployment rate, with 3.5%. San Francisco and Marin counties tied for second with 3.7%, while Orange County came in third with 3.9%.

There were 18,313,500 Californians with jobs in March. That’s a drop of 8,100 from February, and a decrease of 104,100 from March 2023.

The state had 17,996,200 non-farm jobs in March — an increase of 28,300 from February.

Non-farm jobs climbed by 217,700 between March 2023 and last month for a 1.2% increase. Nationwide, jobs grew by 1.9% over the same time.

California saw a loss of 2,000 farm jobs in March, bringing the total to 423,000. However, the agriculture industry nonetheless had 31,300 more farm jobs last month compared to March 2023.

Out of the state’s 11 industry sectors, seven of them gained jobs in March. Private education and health services showed the biggest growth with 13,600 jobs — the largest month-to-month gain for three months in a row. That’s due to payroll additions in social assistance, which saw more in-home support service workers.

After bad weather previously led to losses, the construction industry also saw job growth. That industry had 4,600 more jobs compared to the prior month and 33,900 more jobs compared to March 2023.

The manufacturing sector saw a drop of 5,300 jobs, largely because of losses in food and machinery manufacturing.

Officials with the Employment Development Department say that the state’s unemployment rate is in line with a 5% average rate over five years leading into the Covid-19 pandemic. However, detractors of Governor Gavin Newsom point to California’s 5.3% unemployment rate as being the highest in the nation.

“Newsom is boasting California has the ‘5th largest economy in the world,’” U.S. Representative Kevin Kiley posted Wednesday on X (formerly Twitter). “This distinction predates him. New distinctions during his Governorship include: highest unemployment, lowest wage growth, largest deficit ($73 billion), most U-Haul rentals (four years in a row).”

Kiley, a California Republican and former state Assembly member, ran in the 2021 recall election that sought to remove Newsom from office.

The state Legislative Analyst’s Office has estimated the state’s deficit at $73 billion. Newsom says it’s closer to $38 billion.

Earlier this month, Newsom and other top Democratic lawmakers touted $17.3 billion in deficit reductions. The savings come from a mixture of borrowing, delaying expenses, shifting costs and freezing money that has been allocated but not yet spent.

Republicans called the moves “smoke and mirrors” done in “backroom deals.”

That same week, the state auditor released a report stating that California’s homeless programs haven’t been tracked and evaluated properly and that not enough data existed for a complete review.

This week, officials from across the state asked a Senate budget committee for $1 billion in homelessness funding.

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