Just when you think things in the state of California cannot get any worse, they do. More jobs are going to be lost by the state according to information and analysis put out by journalists for the SanFrancisco Bee, a local paper. According to that analysis the largest cities in the state, well the top 20 at least, will be cutting back on about eight percent of their overall workforce. That means a numerical loss of about 10,000 full time jobs when all is said and done.

These layoff have, as you may have guessed by now, instigated several mass layoff actions under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

For those of you who have not been paying attention to our on going coverage of what is happening in the state of California it seems like a lot of the cuts are coming from locations such as the public schools. The cuts have varied in severity depending on the city’s individual situation. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “It looks like things are getting much, much worse for the schoolteachers in the state of California. We have been talking a lot, in the last couple of weeks and months about the kinds of cuts that are being made to the schools in the state. In a lot of cases those cuts are being made in generic terms we know how many workers are going to be let go, but we do not know how many of them will be classroom teachers. Today we had some light shed on those numbers. According to information released by the California Teachers Association an estimated 19,500 classroom teachers were given layoff notices over the past couple of weeks. The layoff notices had to be given by the 15^th of March in order to be legal under the laws of the state of California. So if an educator did not get a layoff notice by that date then they are free and clear, at least until next years deadline.”

It seems like the state is trying to help some people who are out of a job. Here is an excerpt from news about a recent employment grant given by the state, “Thanks to a $825,000 grant from the state Employment Development Department (EDD), 150 workers who have lost their jobs due to local business closures and downsizing will receive training and assistance to re-enter the workforce in the city of Richmond. A series of substantial layoffs in the region have resulted in the elimination of positions in a number of industries, including manufacturing, retail, and information technology.”