California's unemployment rate soars, but worst yet to come

Adam Beam

The Associated Press

California lost nearly 100,000 jobs in March, signaling a sudden end to a record 10-year streak of job growth because of a coronavirus outbreak that has shuttered nonessential businesses and sent more than 2.7 million residents to the unemployment office.

The unemployment rate in the nation’s most populous state is now 5.3%, a 1.4 percentage point increase that is the largest rate increase on record since 1976, when state officials began using the current formula for tracking job losses.

Still, the numbers are just a glimpse of the pain people are already sufferi...