After consecutive months gaining 45,000 jobs in May and June, California's economy has taken a bit of a summer dip. July's originally-reported increase of 25,000 jobs was just revised down to about 18,000, and August saw only 12,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate dropped a tenth of a point in August to 10.6 percent, but Chapman University Economist Esmael Adibi says that's only because discouraged job seekers gave up.
Adibi: "The pace of job creation
is sluggish - but when you compare it with the national economy,
the pace is stronger and we are in the catch-up mode."
And that's the silver lining. California is gaining jobs at a rate that's a full percent higher than the U.S. as a whole. And despite the slow August, the state's growth still slightly edged out the nation's.
