CalMatters Commentary: California employment takes a downturn

MSN Money ^ | 1-26-2021 | Dan Walters

[Vendome]

Another day and still another maneuver in California’s erratic management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, officials lifted California’s most recent stay-at-home order, giving businesses — small businesses mostly — and their employees permission to take a couple of baby steps toward reopening profitable operations.

It’s not a moment too soon.

Employers and employees alike have suffered mightily as Gov. Gavin Newsom periodically imposed and then lifted restrictions in hopes of, as he puts, “bending the curve” on infections. “We have seen some flattening of the curve but we are not out of the woods yet,” Newsom said Monday.

It’s not certain that his decrees have worked, given the most recent surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, but it is certain that they have had devastating economic impacts, as the newest report on employment underscores.

The state Employment Development Department reported last week that California’s unemployment rate, which had been slowly declining since hitting a peak of 16.8% last spring, spiked upwards to 9% in December, one of the nation’s highest.

December saw California lose 52,200 jobs...

In the last year, since the coronavirus reared its ugly head, employment in California has declined by 1.5 million

[Vendome]

Another day and still another maneuver in California’s erratic management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, officials lifted California’s most recent stay-at-home order, giving businesses — small businesses mostly — and their employees permission to take a couple of baby steps toward reopening profitable operations.

It’s not a moment too soon.

Employers and employees alike have suffered mightily as Gov. Gavin Newsom periodically imposed and then lifted restrictions in hopes of, as he puts, “bending the curve” on infections. “We have seen some flattening of the curve but we are not out of the woods yet,” Newsom said Monday.

It’s not certain that his decrees have worked, given the most recent surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, but it is certain that they have had devastating economic impacts, as the newest report on employment underscores.

The state Employment Development Department reported last week that California’s unemployment rate, which had been slowly declining since hitting a peak of 16.8% last spring, spiked upwards to 9% in December, one of the nation’s highest.

December saw California lose 52,200 jobs...

In the last year, since the coronavirus reared its ugly head, employment in California has declined by 1.5 million

[monkeyshine]

$115 billion in unemployment checks to Californians since March. That’s just about the size of the state budget for a full year. $31 billion of it reported to be likely fraudulent. Why work? BTW, the director of the CA unemployment program that let a 30% fraud rate go undetected has been tapped to lead Biden’s Labor Department.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[DoughtyOne]

California, stick a fork in it...

...it’s so done.

[exDemMom]

California has a lot of issues going on. I don’t think it’s Covid-19 bringing down CA. Leftist policies have been undermining the state for decades.

[kearnyirish2]

Remember Pelosi said in 2013: “Economists agree that unemployment benefits remain one of the best ways to grow the economy in a very immediate way. It immediately injects demand into our markets and increases employment. For every dollar spent on unemployment benefits, the economy grows by, according to one estimate, $1.52; by others, $2. So somewhere in that range, but much more than is spent on it,”

CA is (like NY, NJ) one of the places where tax dollars are expected to replace the private sector economy with a pseudo-economy based on wealth transfers.

[mewzilla]

Not just CA...

https://www.informnny.com/abc50-now/new-york-state-records-5th-consecutive-month-of-declining-unemployment-rates/

Headline sounds good until you look at the numbers. They’re horrific.

[DoughtyOne]

LOL

Jobless claims drop...

95,00 fewer jobs.

Ah no problem there... /s

[CVS-20]

They will get a bailout from the occupiers of the W H.

[CVS-20]

They will get a bailout from the occupiers of the W H.

[CVS-20]

Sorry for the double click.