Features

Both California unemployment, jobs up in April

The Associated Press
Saturday May 12, 2001

SACRAMENTO — California’s unemployment rate jumped slightly in April, but the number of people with jobs also increased, state officials said Friday. 

The unemployment rate climbed from 4.7 percent in March to 4.8 percent in April, according to the state’s Employment Development Department. The rate was 5 percent in April 2000. 

At the same time, the number of people with jobs increased last month, according to surveys of employers and households. 

The survey of households, which includes people who are self-employed, found that a record 16.5 million Californians were working last month, up by 21,000 from March and by 379,000 from April 2000. 

There were 834,000 who were unemployed and looking for work. That total was up 16,000 from March but down 13,000 from April of last year. 

Nationally, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent last month. 

Suzanne Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the department, said the growth in both employment and unemployment figures in California was caused by an increase in the number of workers. 

“Over the month we had a 37,000 increase in the labor force and 21,000 found jobs. That meant that there was an increase of 16,000 that did not find jobs,” she said. 

The department said five industry divisions – construction, wholesale and retail trade, services and government – added jobs during the month while transportation and public utilities reported no change. 

Mining, manufacturing and finance, insurance and real estate reported job losses. 

The services industry added 10,900 jobs, the biggest job gain, while manufacturing had the biggest loss, 7,000 jobs. 

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On the Net: See the figures at www.edd.ca.gov