California's real unemployment rate, including underemployment, discouraged workers, and part-time workers seeking full-time employment, is almost double the official jobless rate at 9.5%. It marks the state's worst reading since 2022's second quarter and is the highest in the nation.
Even the traditional jobless measurement ranks California as the nation's second-highest state for unemployment at 4.8%, only behind Alaska. Factors contributing to California's jobless situation include tech industry losses, high interest rates affecting real estate, a strong US dollar impacting manufacturing, and economic uncertainty affecting white-collar staffing.
Despite the challenges, comparing real employment movement from the start of 2024 to pre-pandemic days shows improvement in California's job market. In the first quarter, real unemployment was 1.2 percentage points below the 10.7% rate.
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