California Underemployment Rate at 24 Percent – 100,000 Workers Will Lose their Unemployment Insurance. No Housing Recovery can be had without Employm

California has reached another unfortunate record. The headline unemployment rate pushed up to a record breaking 12.6 percent. This translates to 2.3 million Californians completely out of work. We also have a large number that are working part-time but would like full-time employment. When we look at the California budget and economy we cannot separate out jobs from the condition of the housing market. California’s big error during the decade was that the health of real estate was the health of jobs. That is, many jobs (too many) depended on the housing bubble. As the bubble burst so has the economy. Yet the current strategy seems to rely on real estate recovering again instead of building up jobs in other industries. If we look at the underemployment rate we are quickly approaching 24 percent. We also have many toxic mortgages that are still sitting in the balance sheets of banks but more are making their way to market. (more)