State Unemployment Numbers Are In: S.F. Situation Upgraded From 'Shitty' to 'Crappy'

James Duncan Davidson

A sign of the times...

The State Employment Development Department today released its monthly accounting of where the state's employment handbasket is in its journey toward hell. And it's a good news-bad news situation akin to: "We've got fresh vegetables -- but we're serving them for dessert."

So, the unemployment totals are down from last month and, as always, significantly better than the state at large. That's the good news. The lousy news is that the numbers are still ugly, way worse than last year at this time, and don't seem to be anything to build on.

Anyhow, here's some data: San Francisco County's unemployment rate sits at 8.8 percent -- a full 2 percent lower than the state average of 10.9 percent. The overall unemployment rate for the San Francisco region dropped from 8.6 to 8.3 percent between March and April, and we gained 500 jobs, pushing our total to 962,100 (this is not a significant gain, obviously, but the big news is we're not losing). If you're in any of the following fields, perhaps this was your lucky month:
Leisure and hospitality gained 2,100 jobs and the government added 1,200 positions (Don't count on that keeping up). Trade, transportation, and utilities shed 1,100 jobs while retail firms dropped 900.

Glancing up and down the county-by-county list of unemployment rates, Marin's tally of 7.2 percent is best in the land. The vast majority of California counties sport double-digit unemployment; the only exceptions are the aforementioned Marin (7.2 percent), Santa Barbara (7.6), Mono (7.9), San Mateo (8.1), Orange (8.3), San Luis Obispo (8.4), Napa (8.5), San Francisco (8.8), San Diego (9.1), Ventura (9.2), Inyo (9.4), Sonoma (9.4), and Contra Costa (9.7).

The worst tally -- by a lot -- is in Imperial County at 26.9 percent unemployment.

Read it and weep, here:

CA Counties Rankings.xls