California has the highest unemployment rate of all states
by Raoul (2024-03-25 12:36:53)

In reply to: From the "Water is wet" department...  posted by Bacchus

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in the US as of February. At 5.3% it is even higher than non-state the District of Columbia.

I won't argue causation (maybe in 3-5 years we will have definitive studies on this), but I will note that among the 5 highest unemployment states + DC you have CA (5.3%), DC (5.2%) and WA (5.1%) have the highest unemployment rates and it has been pretty persistent that way. And then CA has been the most aggressive it seems with even higher city minimum wages and now industry specific minimum wages. I suspect minimum wage is one contributing factor CA's persistent high unemployment. But we are really only 5-6 years into the aggressive national push on minimum wages, so more to come.



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