Figuring out CA economy

Harvard Economics Professor Edward Glaeser can't understand why California is having such a hard time during this recession. March's unemployment rate in California was 11.5 percent (April numbers are due out in a few weeks), and the state has 19 metropolitan areas in double digits. From Economix:

The good news is on the East Coast. Between February and March, the unemployment rate fell in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The unemployment rates in Maine, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and Florida were all unchanged. New Hampshire was the only state on the Atlantic Seaboard where unemployment went up, from 6.3 percent to a still low 6.6 percent.

L.A. County's unemployment rate in March was 11.4 percent - the highest it's been since 1976 - but that's just part of the story. As usually happens in recessions, we're seeing a wide disparity in how people are faring. In Malibu, the jobless rate is 4 percent, but in Compton it's over 19 percent. Here's what I said on KPCC this morning:

The needs of a city like Hermosa Beach, where unemployment is under 5 percent are a lot different than they are in a place like Lancaster, where it's almost 16 percent. Now, there is always going to be a division of haves and have nots - and even in good times the unemployment rate is higher in lower-income lower-educated communities than it is elsewhere. But the big concern is that even after the recession is officially over - that's probably be the next few months - unemployment will remain high well into 2010 and perhaps 2011.