State unemployment rate highest since 1941 (Cal.)

[Mugu]

sfgate.com

The state unemployment rate soared to 11.2 percent in March, the highest since before World War II, leaving a record 2.1 million Californians out of work, according to a report issued Friday.

Employment Development Department spokeswoman Patti Roberts said the March figure surpasses the 11 percent rate that occurred during the 1980s recession and brings California close to the jobless level of January 1941, when unemployment stood at about 11.7 percent.

Roberts said unemployment is estimated to have been as high as 25 percent during the Great Depression. The highest reliable figure in state archives is the 14.7 percent rate in October 1940.

The U.S. unemployment rate for March stood at 8.5 percent.

"California's higher rate of job loss is primarily the result of greater exposure to the housing downturn," said Stephen Levy, with the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto.

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