Today's job and unemployment report shows that the California economy remains in a "jobless recovery" - still participating in what is the weakest national jobs recovery since World War II. The unemployment rate fell by 0.1% - the same as in the nation, and seasonally adjusted nonfarm wage and salary jobs fell by 1,900.

During the past year, California lost 37,700 nonfarm jobs or 8.1% of the nation's 463,000 job decline. California, which has 11.1% of the nation's job base, actually fared better than the nation, with job levels falling by 0.3% versus the nation's 0.4% decline.

California and the nation continued to lose manufacturing jobs in August. For the past year, California lost 3.4% of the state's manufacturing jobs compared to a loss of 4.2% in the nation.

California, which has 10.7% of the nation's manufacturing jobs, had only 8.7% of the manufacturing job losses during the past year.

In the last month's recall campaign debate, a figure was cited about California having 50% of the nation's job losses. Today's estimates, which include a revision to the July job estimate, show a more representative picture of how the state and nation compare.

"The real tragedy of the recall debate is that it is distracting attention from the serious national job problem. High productivity growth and outsourcing and national trends represent difficult national challenges", said Stephen Levy, CCSCE's Director.

"Nearly all the nation's job losses are in manufacturing and these jobs have either disappeared as a result of productivity gains or moved overseas to take advantage of lower labor costs" Levy continued. "Governors would do better for their economies by banding together to address a shared national challenge than in trying to shift jobs from state to state."

Download the press release as a printable PDF file.