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California is a state of pain for workers--its cities dominate our list of metro areas with the most layoffs in the first quarter of 2010.
Charting a different course than the rest of the nation--as it so often does--California shrugged off the budding economic recovery and led the United States in mass layoffs in the first quarter of 2010.
Six of the Golden State's metropolitan areas were in the top 10 nationwide, and the Los Angeles-Long Beach area ranked No. 1 with 15,005 workers axed in mass firings in the quarter, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://topics.forbes.com/U.S.%20Bureau%20of%20Labor%20Statistics - broken link), which reports instances of employers who let go more than 50 workers in a quarter.
The financial and housing meltdowns have had a lot to do with California's lingering economic problems
Southern California's Orange County was a capital for the mortgage industry and lost thousands of jobs when lenders like New Century Financial and Ameriquest blew up. Now it's lenders like GMAC ( GJM - news - people ), which eliminated 269 jobs in the Los Angeles area during the quarter, and Bank of America ( BAC - news - people ), which notified the state of plans to lay off 133 workers in Fremont by July.
"They've been laying people off by the boatload," said Sam Garcia, publisher of Dallas-based MortgageDaily.com, which reported 1,900 mortgage-related layoffs in California in 2009.
With a statewide unemployment rate of 12.6%, California trails only Nevada and Michigan in joblessness and has lost 458,600 jobs since March 2009, the highest total in the country.
Other Los Angeles-area companies announcing layoffs during the quarter included Sony Pictures (http://topics.forbes.com/Sony%20Pictures - broken link), with 228 job cuts planned, and Boeing ( BA - news - people ), with 200.
New York City (http://topics.forbes.com/New%20York%20City - broken link) came in second with 14,600 pink slips in mass layoffs during the quarter. The financial industry seemed to stanch its losses, with employment down 4% at the end of the quarter from the previous year at 716,000, but that's flat with the beginning of the year. Big layoffs came at Pali Capital, a onetime derivatives banker that laid off 135 after filing for bankruptcy, and St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, which left 2,800 workers jobless when it closed after failing to work out $700 million in debt.
After New York comes Chicago, which had an 11.3% unemployment rate at the end of the quarter and significant year-over-year declines in construction, manufacturing and finance employment. Layoffs during the quarter included 79 at Canopy Financial, which folded amid criminal charges against two of its executives. (The charges alleged the pair swindled investors out of $75 million meant to pay customers' medical bills.) Avon Products ( AVP - news - people ), Navistar Financial, Sears Holdings ( SHLD - news - people ) and Unilever also announced layoffs during the quarter.
Next on the layoff list are five California metropolitan areas, all hit hard by employment declines in construction, manufacturing and finance. At No. 3 is Riverside-San Bernadino-Ontario, with a 15% unemployment rate for the quarter--that rivals Detroit's. San Francisco ranks fourth with 7,000 mass layoffs, including hits to its information technology industry, where employment was down 5.5% year over year, and local manufacturing, which lost 4% of its jobs.
The San Diego (http://topics.forbes.com/San%20Diego - broken link), San Jose (http://topics.forbes.com/San%20Jose - broken link) and Sacramento areas are all close behind, with at least 3,000 people losing their jobs in mass layoffs in each of these metro regions.
This articles states that California lost 458,000 jobs since March of 2009 which sucks, but Texas lost 387,100 jobs in 2009 which is also horrible.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
And so we need to look at any labor stats with a grain of salt because pretty much all states are in recovery mode-some happen to be recovering faster than others, but they are all still just recovering nonetheless.
Let's wait until the nation as a whole sees decent job growth before we start writing obits.
This articles states that California lost 458,000 jobs since March of 2009 which sucks, but Texas lost 387,100 jobs in 2009 which is also horrible.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
And so we need to look at any labor stats with a grain of salt because pretty much all states are in recovery mode-some happen to be recovering faster than others, but they are all still just recovering nonetheless.
Let's wait until the nation as a whole sees decent job growth before we start writing obits.
California continues to lose jobs, but Texas creates jobs since September 2009.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,043,145 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 18Montclair
This articles states that California lost 458,000 jobs since March of 2009 which sucks, but Texas lost 387,100 jobs in 2009 which is also horrible.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
And so we need to look at any labor stats with a grain of salt because pretty much all states are in recovery mode-some happen to be recovering faster than others, but they are all still just recovering nonetheless.
Let's wait until the nation as a whole sees decent job growth before we start writing obits.
Yeah Texas was affected by the recession as well, every part of the country was.
But for Texas it was briefly 8-11 months, and then it started to rebound again.
Projections state that Texas will be the new economic "leader" post recession.
And to the post way above in the thread, California will never be the new Michigan. California is too diverse of an economy for that to happen, but I can see it sharing a similar economic fate as France. Powerful economically, but damaged beyond repair nonetheless, it could be temporary for them, but the way migration patterns are going and the way Housing was hit, it's going to be a while.
Yeah Texas was affected by the recession as well, every part of the country was.
But for Texas it was briefly 8-11 months, and then it started to rebound again.
Projections state that Texas will be the new economic "leader" post recession.
And to the post way above in the thread, California will never be the new Michigan. California is too diverse of an economy for that to happen, but I can see it sharing a similar economic fate as France. Powerful economically, but damaged beyond repair nonetheless, it could be temporary for them, but the way migration patterns are going and the way Housing was hit, it's going to be a while.
You insult my country
No, it's a joke ^^
Seriously, I can't wish the same fate than France for California, this state would become extremly bad.
I think California will become business-friendly again, don't know when, but I think it, there isn't another choice except bankrupt !
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,043,145 times
Reputation: 4047
Quote:
Originally Posted by RenaudFR
You insult my country
No, it's a joke ^^
Seriously, I can't wish the same fate than France for California, this state would become extremly bad.
I think California will become business-friendly again, don't know when, but I think it, there isn't another choice except bankrupt !
The economy of France is one of the top 15 largest in the world, but does it really seem that bad there? Like economically?
Haha, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to insult your country, I completely forgot you were from France, I just needed an example to use.
For California to do that again, they have to fix these high costs, and taxes. And that will take a lonnnnngggggg time because a state having "income tax" and going to not having income tax is going to be a massive shift.
Don't worry, just a joke , you can say what you want about my country..You were right anyway ^^"
Quote:
but does it really seem that bad there? Like economically?
We have a high unemployment since 1970 (in my area it's 20% ), same thing for economic growth (very slow) and high taxes (in France we pay much more taxes with a 20% sales tax, much more income tax (double) and we have many burdens because excessive regulations).
France is very good for tourism, cheese (I love cheese ahaha) and fashion, but economically it's a nightmare :/
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,043,145 times
Reputation: 4047
Quote:
Originally Posted by RenaudFR
Don't worry, just a joke , you can say what you want about my country..You were right anyway ^^"
We have a high unemployment since 1970 (in my area it's 20% ), same thing for economic growth (very slow) and high taxes (in France we pay much more taxes with a 20% sales tax, much more income tax (double) and we have many burdens because excessive regulations).
France is very good for tourism, cheese (I love cheese ahaha) and fashion, but economically it's a nightmare :/
OUCH!!
I can see why you want to relocate here now.
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, you can say what you want about my country..You were right anyway ^^"
), same thing for economic growth (very slow) and high taxes (in France we pay much more taxes with a 20% sales tax, much more income tax (double) and we have many burdens because excessive regulations).
