Long seen by economists as a truer marker than the traditional unemployment rate, CA's underemployment rate hit a shocking 22% in September. Per the Chron: "That figure includes 1.9 million jobless Californians, 1.4 million people who had to work part time, and 865,000 adults loosely described as discouraged." (Full chart after the jump.) Many of those working part time are people who were furloughed or otherwise given fewer work hours rather than being laid off. And those "discouraged" folks are the ones who no longer qualify for unemployment and who have basically given up on looking for work. more ›

Toyota has announced that it will cease production at the Fremont-based assembly plant known as NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.), effective March 2010. This follows on GM backing out of the same facility following their own bankruptcy, and liquidating their stake under court supervision. The NUMMI plant was started in 1984 as a 50-50 joint venture between the two auto makers, and it is the sole auto manufacturing facility on the West Coast. The plant employs 4,600 people, and should no other auto maker emerge to take over the facility, it will mark the end of auto production in California. Per Beth Spotswood's comment as she pointed to this story on SFGate, yes, the East Bay is now Detroit. more ›

Kaiser Permanente plans to eliminate about 1,200 Northern California jobs due to the tanking economy. The primary areas affected by this most recent slash include "housekeeping, pharmacy techs/clerks, unit assistants, transcription/medical secretaries, health information management clerks and local business offices." The job cuts will effectively remove about 2% of its workforce. The company says it will try to shift cut employees into other positions at Kaiser, but, really, that doesn't seem likely. Kaiser also said "the cuts will not impact the level of service for their patients," or what little left of it there is. Sigh. more ›