California Lost 20,500 Jobs in July — Why the “Better” Unemployment Rate Is Raising New Questions
California’s unemployment rate just improved to 5.1%, but the state’s latest employment numbers contain a warning that is easy to miss: California actually lost 20,500 payroll jobs in July, while hundreds of thousands of people have disappeared from the state’s labor force since the beginning of the year. The July figures, released August 21, present…