Unemployment in Los Angeles Hits 12.4 Percent: Recovery or Great Recession?

'The Jerk'

We hope you're enjoying the economic recovery, what with the stock market taking a stage dive, a real estate Ice Age and yes, lots and lots of people out of work. Good thing 2008 is in the rear view, right?

Wait, California just announced state unemployment has hit 12 percent. That's more than one in 10 people without a job, not counting those who have just given up (that might put us closer to one out of five).

That rate is up from 11.8 percent in June. And in L.A. it's even worse:

12.4 percent of us are without paycheck.

But back to that recovery. The California Employment Development Department says that compared to July 2011 things are still better. We have 1.4 percent more jobs in the state today.

Reassuring, yes, but federal numbers, taken from a smaller sample size, contradict that and claim that California actually lost 53,000 jobs in that time.

Claims for unemployment checks were down since last summer, though, too, according to the EDD.

So yeah, that recovery, she's around here somewhere. Do your part and use that unemployment check to buy something. Hopefully not just medical marijuana, either.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]