Bay Area bracing for more job losses

By News on the Net —— Bio and Archives March 1, 2009

Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us

SAN JOSE, CA (KGO) -- New jobless figures are out for California, and for the first time in a quarter century, the unemployment rate is in "double digits  10.1 percent. That's up from less than six percent just more than a year ago, and it's the highest rate since June of 1983.

After 19 years of steady work, construction project manager Randy McCune never thought he'd be laid off. However, it happened two months ago. That makes him part of California's 10.1 percent unemployed. "It really goes along with the work load, and the work load is just not there right now," said McCune. He joins 1.8 million jobless Californians. That number grew by a quarter-million in the past month, and by three-quarters of a million in the past year...more