State unemployment skyrockets, 152,000 jobs lost in the last two months

The State Employment Development Department announced that California lost 78,200 jobs in December and the unemployment rate is now 9.3 percent – the highest rate since 1993. About 1.7 million Californians were looking for work last month — up by 166,000 since November and up 653,000 since December 2007.  Some 785,200 were laid off, while 125,300 chose to leave their job. The rest were either temporarily employed or new job seekers.  he construction sector accounted for the most job cuts over the past year- 92,600 positions, a 10.8 percent annual drop. The latest job figures followed a revised loss of 73,500 payroll jobs in November. That means California has lost nearly 152,000 jobs in the last two months.