California’s jobs report, released Friday the 16^th, showed that the California economy is still bumping along the bottom of a serious recession.  The various indicators, for the month of September, show only slight improvements over August.  There was a slight improvement in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from 12.3 percent to 12.2 percent.  There was also a slight improvement in year-on-year All Industries job growth, which declined from 4.8 percent to 4.7 percent. 

The report shows that year-on-year jobs are declining in all major sectors except Education and Healthcare.  This is being driven by job gains in Healthcare.  The sectors losing the most jobs in September were Construction (down 146,000 jobs) and Professional/Business Services (down 135,000 jobs).  This is the 36-th consecutive month that Construction jobs have declined on a year-over-year basis.  The job losses in Professional/Business Services are contributing to declines in California’s average salary, since this is a relatively well-paying sector.   These declines in both jobs and pay will contribute to ongoing weakness in real estate and consumer sales, and these factors will keep California’s economy weak for a while.