Looming Recession Update: We're Ohio Now

I'll fill you in on the protest soon. It went very well. But I'm fortunate enough to be able to go to Burbank at 4:00 on a Friday and protest. Some of our other fellow Californians aren't so lucky. They're busy trying to find a way to keep their homes and feed their families. The LA Times has the latest job numbers, and they're obscene.

California's unemployment rate rose by a whopping half a percentage point in March, reaching 6.2% as a weakening economy shed jobs in the ailing construction and financial activities sectors. In all, 1.13 million were unemployed [...]

California is doing worse than Pennsylvania and Ohio ... the two Rust Belt states that have figured prominently in the presidential primary elections because of their lost manufacturing jobs.

If the governor's budget-cutting plan moves forward and thousands of educators across the state lose their jobs, this will only get worse. The worst, absolute worst numbers are in the Inland Empire, where construction is at a standstill and housing-related employment is melting away.

The rise in unemployment during March affected all of Southern California, with the worst effects in the Inland Empire. The rate in Riverside County -- not seasonally adjusted -- rose to 7.4% from 7.0%, while in San Bernardino County it rose to 6.7% from 6.3%.

7.4% isn't approaching the 1980s just yet, but it's getting pretty damn close. And areas like the IE, which don't have a sustaining support structure for the unemployed or the needy the way that, say, Los Angeles does, are particularly vulnerable. We're on the front lines of an economic meltdown that is rapidly expanding.

Good thing we have a bantaaastic governor who gets on the cover of Time magazine!