Nice jobs report - but what about California?

The gap between the state jobless rate and the national jobless rate remains very wide. As of December, the U.S. rate was 8.5 percent; as of November, the California rate was 11.3 percent, second-highest to Nevada (December state numbers come out in a few weeks). It's even higher for L.A. County, which had a jobless rate in November of 11.9 percent. Don't get me wrong, the numbers are a big improvement over a year earlier, but they're still high, and even the more optimistic economists don't expect them to fall below double digits for another year or two. The most basic explanation is that the recession took a bigger toll in California than in other states, with housing suffering the biggest hit. Home construction came to a virtual halt, which put lots of folks out of work, and it's been a slow crawl back (though there's been improvement on the commercial side). Government employment continues to drop - and Gov. Brown's budget message yesterday doesn't give out much hope that the situation will change anytime soon. Manufacturing, which is one of the highlights of the national report, actually has been slowing down, both locally and in the state - so we'll have to watch that. Then you have stuff pretty much out of anybody's control - something like the European debt problems, for example, could result in a loss of international tourism. But for all those problems, it's important to remember that the state has added more than 300,000 jobs since the labor market hit bottom about a year ago. That's a growth rate of around 2 percent, which is better than the nation. And if the outlook keeps improving for the nation, it's certain to rub off on California, which continues to outpace most any other state, resource wise.