Unemployment Hits 15 Percent in San Bernardino County

Unemployment rate goes back up to 15 percent in San Bernardino and Riverside counties

This figure does not include welfare recipients. If welfare recipients were included in these figures the numbers would be more like thirty percent.

The unemployment rate in the Inland Empire has gone back up again.

After the jobless rate decreased in San Bernardino and Riverside counties in February, the two-county rate rose to 15 percent in March, according to statistics provided by the Employment Development Department.

The March rate represents the second time in three months that unemployment has hit 15 percent. San Bernardino and Riverside counties had an unemployment rate of 15 percent in January and dipped slightly to 14.8 percent in February.

Fontana City Manager Ken Hunt said the short-term answer to the question of how to create jobs locally is to get construction moving forward again.

“The Inland Empire’s economy is based on the construction industry, and much of the downturn locally has been created by the bottom falling out of the housing market,” Hunt said in a recent blog on the City of Fontana website. “We are beginning to see some signs of recovery in this area. I am confident that we will continue to see improvement in this area during the next couple of years.”

Statewide, California’s unemployment rate increased to 12.6 percent in March, from 12.5 percent in February.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent.

In Riverside County, the unemployment rate now stands at 15.1 percent, up from 14.8 percent in February. Currently, 139,100 of the county’s 918,900-person labor force is out of work.

The jobless rate in San Bernardino County was slightly better. The unemployment rate now stands at 14.8 percent in March, down from 14.4 percent in February. According to the EDD figures, 128,900 of the county’s 870,800 workforce are unemployed.

Statewide, more than 2.3 million people are out of work.

“This is a sobering reminder that our focus in the Legislature must be finding ways to lift the restrictive regulatory burdens that have made California the most expensive place in the nation to do business,” said State Senator Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga). “I hope that my Democrat colleagues feel the same way and will join me in passing some of the important pieces of legislation that will help improve California’s dismal business climate.”