California Dreamin' or Mid-Summer's Nightmare?

LOS ANGELES-Analysts and Southland property investors officially enter mid-summer today in a cautious mood, trying to make sense of a pair of new reports that give conflicting clues about the direction of the state and national economy.

The two reports were released on Friday. In the first, California’s Employment Development Department says that continuing layoffs in the dot-com sector and related problems combined to push the state’s unemployment rate up from 4.9% in May to 5.1% in June. It was the fourth straight monthly increase and raised the jobless figure to its highest level in a year.

Moreover, the report says, a mere 3,600 jobs were created across the state last month–compared to an average of 46,200 jobs that were created in California every month in 2000. “The economy just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere right now,” says Brad Williams, senior economist for the state’s legislative analyst’s office.