Unemployment in California, Silicon Valley at four-year high
20 Sep 2008
As a testament to a slowing economy, Silicon Valley's unemployment rate increased for the fourth consecutive month in August, reaching a four-year high.
In Santa Clara and San Benito counties, unemployment was at 6.6 per cent in August, higher than July's revised 6.5 percent, and 1.6 per cent more than the 5 percent recorded in August 2007.
The unemployment data was released yesterday by California's Employment Development Department, and is the highest since July 2004, when it was 6.7 per cent.
However, in the silver lining to the dark cloud of unemployment data, in the South Bay counties, the number of jobs went up by 300 in August as compared to the previous month. The area's workforce now totals 916,000. The downside is that year-over-year, job total in Silicon Valley dropped by 1,400 jobs.
Across the state, the unemployment rate was 7.7 per cent in August, up from 7.4 per cent in July. The total number of people unemployed in California was 1,417,000, an increase of 61,000 over the last month, and was higher by 413,000 as compared with August 2007.
According to the state's labour marketing information division, construction in the Silicon Valley, which had been sluggish over the past few months has some good news finally. Even though construction is down 2,400 jobs year-over-year, the nationwide housing crisis has seen the industry gain 900 jobs from July to August this year, with the average month-to-month gain being around 700 jobs.
California's unemployment at 7.7 per cent for August is the highest since March 1996. The sub-prime mortgage crisis and the Wall Street meltdown are said to be some of the drivers of the unemployment figures.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has written to congressional leaders of both parties at the start of the week, urging them to extend federal unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks, citing the national housing slump and the sub-prime crisis.
