Justin Wehner with the state Employment Development Department says the construction sector lost the most jobs last month.   

"It lost 2,700 jobs. It usually loses just 1,000. But it's quite possible that the industry is experiencing larger than proportional job declines because it experienced larger than average job gains over the summer months." 

The agriculture and professional business services sectors also lost jobs last month.

But those losses were offset by a 4,800 job gain in the retail sector…spurred by the holiday shopping season.

November's unemployment rate of 9.8% was well below the jobless rate from November of last year…when it was 11%.

Statewide Unemployment Dips Below 10%, but Calif. Loses Jobs
by Ben Adler

California's unemployment rate is below 10 percent for the first time in nearly four years.  It dropped three-tenths of a point to 9.8 percent in November.

Loree Levy with the state's Employment Development Department says the numbers suggest Californians are coming back into the labor force.

Levy: "Really overall, the trend in job growth is strong. In fact, there's been more than 268,000 jobs gained over the last year.  So things are looking up in the job area, and hopefully we'll get back into the positive category for job gains next month."

But the rest of Friday's jobs report is a disappointment.  The state lost nearly 4,000 jobs last month, and October's big gain was revised down by 7,000 jobs.

An economist at Chapman University in Orange says the growth in the labor force that led to the drop in the unemployment rate is mostly due to seasonal jobs - many of them self-employed.  He says many of those jobs will disappear in a few months.