California’s unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent in October, reaching its highest level since the pandemic, the state’s Employment Development Department reported Nov. 15.
The steady decline in the job market was confirmed by fiscal experts who say the state faces an extended slowdown as private-sector job growth continues to stall.
The new numbers show it was a good decision for the majority of voters on Nov. 5 to reject California’s proposed minimum wage hike to $18, according to Marc Joffe, a political analyst at the Cato Institute think tank.
“California’s 5.4 percent unemployment rate is 1.3 percent above the national level and 1.6 percent above its 2022 trough,” Joffe, a Walnut Creek, California, resident, posted on X Wednesday. “Voters were wise to reject the minimum wage increase.”…