Jobless rate climbs to 11.2 percent in California

As the construction, manufacturing and banking industries continued to reel under the economic recession, nation's most-populous state, California, shed 62,100 jobs in March alone.

Jerry Nickelsburg, a senior economist at UCLA noted that the sheer size of California’s economy is responsible for the downturn. He said, "As consumer demand declines all over the country, that gets amplified in the California numbers in our logistics; transportation and warehousing and ports."

The maximum level to which unemployment has risen in California is 14.7 percent in October 1940. Figures from the Labor Department also revealed that the state's joblessness rate hasn't soared since reaching 11.7 percent in January 1941.

Referring to the housing-market crash, chief economist for California's finance department, Howard Roth said, "We did it bigger in terms of the housing bubble. You pay for that by falling farther."

While California epitomizes the quandary that America finds itself in, 54-year-old Teresa Nelson says what millions of Americans would echo. Nelson, a lawyer by profession has applied for close to two dozen jobs in the last one year. Unfortunately she has not landed in a job. She rues, "I have a lot of qualifications, lots of experience, but people assume I need a higher salary. It's been frustrating."

The federal report revealed that only Mississippi and North Dakota bucked the trend of payroll declines in March. The rest of the 48 states and the District of Columbia saw the unemployment rate heading north.

In terms of numbers, Florida lost 51,900 jobs in March, while Texas and North Carolina lost 47,100 and 41,300 jobs respectively. Rendered weak by the mayhem in the auto industry, Michigan reported the highest unemployment of 12.6 percent. Oregon and South Carolina registered unemployment rates of 12.1 percent and 11.4 percent respectively.

As the recession continues unabated, many economists are apprehensive that the unemployment rate would breach 10 percent nationwide by late 2009 or early 2010. The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in March.