California added twelve thousand jobs in August. That’s slightly ahead of the nation as a whole, but far short of how the state’s done in previous months. In addition, July’s twenty-five thousand job increase was revised down to about eighteen thousand.
Chapman University Economist Esmael Adibi said that’s a big fall from May and June, when California added forty-five thousand jobs each month.
“Everyone was excited that really California was gaining much more jobs, much more rapidly than the U.S.," said Adibi. Unfortunately now, I guess, the reality is hitting.”
The state’s unemployment rate fell a tenth of a point to ten-point-six percent. But Adibi said that’s just because people who had been looking for jobs stopped looking.
Still, California is growing jobs more quickly than the nation over the last twelve months.
