This one hurts. Kern County's unemployment rate hit 13.8 percent in January. That's up from 11.8 percent in December, and it's a full four percentage points above what it was last year this time, at 9.8 percent. Now it's true that our "seasonal" unemployment rate hovers around 9 percent because of migratory labor, but 13.8 percent is a staggering number no matter how you view it. By comparison: the jobless rate in California is 10.6 percent and 8.5 percent nationally. Anecdotally, saw my friend Jeff Simpson today - he's the owner of Sequoia Sandwich shop - and he told me that for every opening for a server, he is being inundated with resumes from people with college degrees and others used to making $20 or $25 an hour. Rough out there.
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