Statewide, unemployment in December was at 12.4%. That's
unchanged from the previous month.
And that's pretty much the story locally. In the four-county Sacramento area, December's jobless rate was 12.3%, down only slightly from November's historic high of 12.5%.
Justin Wehner with the state Employment Development Department says that's not much of a surprise.
"Yeah, we were expecting something close to the 12.5% which is the highest since modern record keeping began in 1990. It'll be interesting to see what happens next month as we would expect retailers to get rid of a lot of the employment that they took on for the holiday shopping season."
Despite a drop in the unemployment rate, the Sacramento area lost 3,700 jobs between November and December. Wehner says that's likely because many people who've been out-of-work, have stopped actively searching for employment.
Most of the local job losses were in state and federal government, construction and leisure-and-hospitality.
And that's pretty much the story locally. In the four-county Sacramento area, December's jobless rate was 12.3%, down only slightly from November's historic high of 12.5%.
Justin Wehner with the state Employment Development Department says that's not much of a surprise.
"Yeah, we were expecting something close to the 12.5% which is the highest since modern record keeping began in 1990. It'll be interesting to see what happens next month as we would expect retailers to get rid of a lot of the employment that they took on for the holiday shopping season."
Despite a drop in the unemployment rate, the Sacramento area lost 3,700 jobs between November and December. Wehner says that's likely because many people who've been out-of-work, have stopped actively searching for employment.
Most of the local job losses were in state and federal government, construction and leisure-and-hospitality.