The news story:
California’s jobless rate surged in February to the highest level since 1983 while unemployment in Oregon and Nevada climbed above 10 percent for the first time in more than two decades.
Unemployment in California rose to 10.5 percent from 10.1 percent in January, its Employment Development Department reported today in Sacramento. Neighboring Oregon’s jobless rate rose a full percentage point to 10.8 percent, and Nevada’s increased to 10.1 percent.
“The West Coast is more heavily dependent on real estate and the decline there has been more pronounced” than in the rest of the U.S., said Sung Won-Sohn, an economics professor at California State University-Channel Islands in Camarillo, California. “We are not seeing any signs of stabilization in the job market.”
Unemployment across the nation may top 9 percent by the end of the year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, and it could go higher.
I’m guessing it will top out at 12-15% nationally, but for my Nevada I wouldn’t be surprised if 20% unemployment comes our way…tourism is down, gambling is down, Yucca Mountain has been shut down, there’s less and less demand for the products of Nevada’s mines. As for California – they seem bent in Sacramento in killing whatever golden geese are left. Tax increases when you’re bankrupt is stupid…but the Govinator and the CA legislature seem bent on it. Nary a thought given to genuine budget cuts…while the attempts of Nevada’s governor to cut the budget are being met with the usual “little, old ladies and children will die!!!!” nonsense from the usual suspects if we dare cut a penny from the budget.
It’d be nice if the Federal government was rational, but Obama and his Democrats seem determined that spending and tax increases are just what the economic doctor ordered…that plus the prospect of a massive carbon tax to fight mythical anthropogenic global warming. I’m hopeful it will change, of course – but I don’t see that happening until after the 2010 elections.
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