The California jobless rate rose to 12.3% last month from 11.9% in May, said the CEDD. Government workers hit the unemployment lines in droves, due to lay offs - that's a lot of it. The question is, are those jobs really ever going to come back for those same people? Frankly, it seems like becoming a Free Agent (a contract employee with full, transferrable benefits) would be the way to go for a lot of them.
For companies looking to hire talented professionals with lots of experience, but not stick their necks out with a hiring spree (maybe they need to staff up for a 12-month project), bringing people on with Free Agent Source lets them hire without risk, but still get the kind of talent you'd expect from permanent hiring. Win for everyone.
A lot more layoffs and jobless possibly in the works
The unemployment rate (12.5%) in California is, in the main, due to the 28,000 government workers laid off or fired. According to LA Progressive, candidate for governor Meg Whitman is proposing eliminating another 40,000 state workers as part of a massive budget cut, and the current governor is looking to eliminate CalWORKS from the budget, the welfare to work program that trains people for the workforce. In other words, regardless of one's politics, jobless rates could get significantly worse.
More people for fewer jobs
Incidentally, SimplyHired shows the number of job postings available in California has decreased by 16% since November 2008 - indicating, with the above info, that there truly are more people competing for fewer jobs of any kind.