Unemployment | featured news

The state, which has the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation, lost 63,500 jobs in September. In Los Angeles County, the unemployment rate was 12.6%, up from 12.2% a year ago. California's economy continued to suffer in September as employers cut jobs from payrolls and the state's unemployment rate remained steady at 12.4%.

Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the drop wasn't enough to reverse a big increase the previous week.

The simple truth is that Obama and the Democratic Congress were dealt a lousy economic hand, and they've played it about as well as anyone could. Along with their predecessors and the holdovers at the Federal Reserve, they prevented a collapse of the global financial system and a 1930s-like depression. But given the magnitude of the financial crisis and the global imbalances that gave rise to it, a prolonged period of slow growth and high unemployment was almost inevitable.

The public panned it. Republicans obstructed it. Many Democrats fled from it. Even so, the session of Congress now drawing to a close was the most productive in nearly half a century.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Friday laid out a case for the central bank to take further action to bolster growth, citing the risks of prolonged high unemployment and a U.S. economy slipping into a deflationary spiral.

Retail sales in the U.S. climbed more than forecast in September, easing concern that unemployment stuck near a 26-year high will bring the recovery to a halt.

A six-month decline in mortgage rates has spurred a surge in refinancing while doing little to increase property demand as US unemployment hovers near 10 percent.

American voters unhappy at high unemployment are poised to oust President Barack Obama's Democrats from control of the U.S. House of Representatives in Nov. 2 elections, a new Reuters-Ipsos poll found Wednesday.

The unemployment rate stayed flat at 9.6 percent in September, but the drop in employment was far worse than expected.

The state loses 33,500 jobs in August, the third straight month of payroll cuts. California has lost 113,100 jobs since August 2009, when the unemployment rate was 12%.