Unemployment in the Eastern Sierra continues to hover near one in ten people looking for work and higher.

main_st._bishopWith the nation as a whole running at about the same rate of one in ten people out of a job, the newest numbers for California show the state at 12.2% unemployment.

For the month of November, Inyo County checked in at 9.6% a slight drop over the 9.8% unemployed in October. The numbers for November leave 910 people looking for work. In November of 2008, unemployment for Inyo County ran 7.6%, but for the past four months the county has been close to 10% unemployment.

In Mono County the number of unemployed continues to be higher than in Inyo County and closer to the state average. For the month of November, Mono County was listed at 12% or 970 people looking for work. Perhaps a reflection of the seasonal hiring, this is lower than the 12.6% Mono County unemployment of October, but still higher than November of 2008 which registered at 7.7%.

Inyo County also has a higher percentage of government workers(34% of the workforce) than Mono County which has 19.5% of the workforce employed by the government. Government jobs are fairly stable from the employment perspective, but there are many government employees in the Eastern Sierra that have seen pay cuts.

The unemployment numbers reflect people out of work and looking for work. The state doesnt list those that have taken pay cuts and furloughs and those that are working part time in the Eastern Sierra. Across California, the state calculates that 9% of people with jobs are working part time when they would rather work full time.

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