The state’s loss followed a gain of 32,000 work in January. You can find 586,400 fewer work in California last month than there were at the same time last year, a drop of 4.1 %.

The department mentioned numerous from the losses last month occurred within the construction industry, which lost 21,500 work. Professional and business services grew a lot more than any other sector, gaining 10,000 work.

"Far too numerous Californians remain unemployed, and that’s why I am so glad I signed legislation this week to bolster work creation," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger mentioned, referring to his homebuyer tax credit and green technology sales tax exemption proposals.

"However, a lot more should be done, and I encourage the Legislature to keep up the great perform and pass the additional elements of my California Work Initiative so we can get individuals off the unemployment rolls and into the perform force," Schwarzenegger mentioned.

The national jobless rate also remained unchanged in February at 9.7 %. Michigan’s jobless rate is still the highest among all 50 states, at 14.1 %.

The relative stability in work and unemployment shows that the economy is moving from down to flat, on a painfully slow path toward work growth, mentioned Steve Levy, director from the Center for Continuing Study from the California Economy.

"March and April ought to bring much better news, both within the state and within the nation as we expect small work growth in both areas," Levy mentioned. "We see signs outside the work market that this slow recovery is happening. There’s a lot more trade at the ports, there’s a lot more traffic at the airports, there’s a lot more tourism."

For the individuals who are unemployed economists think this will be a slow recovery, and it will take months and years in some cases to recover the work losses from the last two years, Levy mentioned.

Other sectors that saw work growth in California included mining and logging; trade, transportation and utilities; and educational and health services.

Unemployment was highest in Colusa County, which had a non seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 27.6 %, followed by Imperial County at 27.2 %. Mono County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate, at 7.8 %, followed by Marin County with 8.4 %.

The state of California, in conjunction with the federal government, is now offering to California residents, an additional 13 weeks of emergency unemployment compensation, to those who have exhausted their initial 26 weeks of unemployment benefits in the state of California.

The Federal unemployment compensation, or emergency unemployment compensation provides that those who are no longer eligible for their benefits, having used all of the benefits to which they were entitled, because of the higher unemployment rates in recent months, can be given an additional set of unemployment benefits in the state of California which are equal to half of your original benefits.

This means that you may go to the California unemployment web site and file for a federal extension. You will receive the same amounto f money that  you claimed for your initial unemployment compensation, but you will receive it for only half of the time span, or thirteen weeks rather than for twenty six.

To claim your California unemployment benefits, or to file for the federal unemployment benefits extension, (emergency unemployment) there are three ways you may use.

Visit the California unemployment office web site, located at:
http://www.edd.ca.gov/uiappind.htm     which is the easier and faster way to accomplish the filing for your unemployment benefits, or the federal unemployment benefits extension.

You may also file  by telephone by calling the county office for the county in which you live.

If you are hard of hearing or deaf, you may contact the California unemployment office regarding your federal unemployment benefits extension at :

* Disability Insurance: (TTY) 1-800-563-2441
* Employment Tax: (TTY) 1-800-547-9565
* Unemployment Insurance (TTY) 1-800-815-9387

Or, failing either of these methods, you may visit the local unemployment office which is listed for your county or city at the California unemployment web site:

http://www.edd.ca.gov/Jobs_and_Training/Workforce_Services_Offices_by_County.htm