My hometown of Sacramento is facing huge unemployment rates mostly due to a record drop in construction jobs. The Sacramento Business Journal has put together an in-depth article examining the city’s unemployment problem. I have included a clip of their article below, but the full text can be found here.
Sacramento will lose 30,000 construction jobs by 2010, a 40 percent drop and the most of any Northern California metropolitan area, according to a forecast released Thursday by the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific.
The Sacramento area, currently burdened by a 10.8 percent unemployment rate, is projected to crest above 12 percent in early 2010, far beyond any previously recorded rates.
“Sacramento has disproven the notion that state capitols are recession resistant,” said the center’s director, Jeff Michael.
Unemployment is forecast to peak at 11.5 percent in San Jose, 11.3 percent in the East Bay, and 9 percent in San Francisco.
“Population shifted to the Bay, and the recession followed,” Michael said.
Unemployment in the San Joaquin Valley is forecast to peak around 18 percent, levels last seen in the early 1990s.