Strike boosts unemployment

The effects of the WGA walkout finally kicked in last month with a decline of 19,200 entertainment industry jobs, a 15.4 percent drop from January, 2007. It's a good bet that many of these positions involved non-writers at production studios who were laid off as a result of the strike. Many of those staff spots are probably back, though there's likely to be some upheaval at the studios because so many production deals were axed. As we’ve said before, it’s very hard to keep tabs on Hollywood jobs. Overall, January unemployment in L.A. County was 5.7 percent, up from 5.4 percent a month earlier and 4.7 percent in January 2007 (previous stats have been adjusted because of an annual recalibration by the state Employment Development Department). California's jobless rate was 5.9 percent. Even putting aside the strike, it was a lousy month for lots of the big industries, like transportation, construction and manufacturing. Here's the EDD release.