| California unemployment rate remains at 12.6 percent |
| Date: 2010/5/25 Click: 2198 |
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Though more jobs were added, California's unemployment rate held steady at 12.6 percent last month, according to figures released on Friday.
April marked the fourth consecutive month California has added jobs, with non-farm payroll jobs going up by 14,200, the state Employment Development Department said.
Since Jan. 1, the state has added more than 56,000 new jobs.
But about 2.3 million Californians remain unemployed. That's down 7,000 from March, but still higher than a year ago, when the jobless rate was 11 percent.
Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate rose from 9.7 percent to 9.9 percent in April.
"While I am encouraged that April marked the fourth consecutive month California has added jobs, we have a long way to go for employment to recover from this great recession," California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
"For that to happen we need to see vigorous hiring in the private sector, and that's why I refused to propose new tax increases in my May Revision budget. Government needs to encourage private sector hiring, which will increase revenues and economic output, not discourage that hiring by increasing burdens on employers, which would stall our economic recovery," the governor said. |
