January 22, 2010
“California’s unemployment rate stays steady at 12.4%”
To summarize this article, it describes California’s current unemployment rate and what has led it to reach that height. It is unbelievable to see that in just 2 years, the unemployment rate in Los Angeles almost doubled. It seems that it was just yesterday that the state and country were doing so well. The article also states and brifley describes some factors that have contributed to the state’s high unemployment rate. The main one seems to be that the “housing bubble has burst”, meaning that less houses are being produced per year and that means construction workers are massively being layed off.
Honestly, I think the state is making their economy much worse rather than making it better. In order to build an economy, people need to spend money. If the state is constantly laying off workers, of course nobody is going to be spending what they did before if they can barely make rent for the month. On the other hand, the state claims to have very little money to spend, so their solution is to lay off workers to relieve themselves of high expenses. As you can see, one thing is attached to the other. Right now, we cannot fix one thing without making another worse.
I think its incredible that the unemployment rate is so high, but not in a good way. If you think about, our unemployment rate has really been increasing and fast too. In 2008, the California unemployment rate was at 8.7%. Now, it is at 12.4%. That is almost a 4 percent increase in just 2 years. If the state keeps doing what it is doing now, which is waiting on a miracle while spending money they claim they do not have, the state economy will only worsen and drastic measure will have to be taken. The thing is I don not think anyone wants to find out what those measure will be.
