California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

The recession has taken an unprecedented toll on California's workers and the
state's economy compared to previous downturns, according to a new report from
the California Budget Project, a nonpartisan public policy research group.

Highlights of the CBP report:

• In just two years, the recession has wiped out all of the jobs Californians
        gained during the previous four-year economic expansion. In July 2009,
        California had 952,800 fewer jobs than in July 2007. California now has
        approximately the same number of jobs as it did nine years ago, when the
        state was home to 3.3 million fewer working-age individuals

• The state's unemployment rate more than doubled in two years, reaching an
        all-time high in July 2009 of 11.9 percent, the highest rate since record
        keeping began in 1976.

• A smaller share of Californians is working today than at any point since
        the late 1970s. Fewer than three out of five of the state's working-age
        adults (57.5 percent) had jobs in July. This means that approximately two
        out of every five adults were jobless

• The current recession has affected those with jobs, too. The current recession
        has increased the ranks of the underemployed, those who are forced to work
        part-time either because their employers reduced their hours or because they
        could not find full-time jobs. On average, approximately 1.4 million
        Californians were underemployed during the 12 months that ended in July 2009.
        That means that the current rate of unemployment is an inadequate measure of
        the current weakness in the job market

• Nearly every major sector of California's economy has lost jobs. However,
        construction has suffered the largest percentage drop since the onset of
        the recession, with July 2009 employment down by 29.4 percent from July 2007

• The weak job market has taken a toll on workers' earnings. Hourly wages lost
        purchasing power across the earnings distribution in early 2009. In addition,
        weekly earnings declined for many workers, largely because of reduced hours
        of work.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.