November is one of the busiest shopping months of the year, so Dennis Meyers says he was surprised that the unemployment didn't drop at all. He's the principal economist for the California Department of Finance. He says the state's unemployment rate has lingered between 12 point three and 12 point six percent for a full year now. He calls that a "jobless recovery."
"And that's really what we're in right now is a recovery that's just adding jobs at such a low rate that it's not even absorbing new workers that are being added to the workforce."
Meyers says California did add jobs in several sectors,
including professional business services - that's things like
scientific and technical research - and temporary help hiring. He
says hiring temps is usually a precursor to hiring more full time
employees.