Severe Flooding Blamed For Some of New Layoffs: Weather Hurts California
SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 7ÛÓ CaliforniaÛªs unemployment rate rose sharply to 7.2 percent during February, a 1.4 percent increase over the month before, meaning that</br></br>The rise was the largest in more than a year, and it puzzled state officials who only could speculate that bad weather had kept many more workers than usual off the job. They noted that heavy rains have left fields in many areas too muddy to work, resulting in See CALIFORNIA, D2, Col. 1 layoffs of farmhands. The state Employment Development Department reported today that 566,700 people were laid off during February, another 114,500 left their jobs voluntarily and the balance was ÛÏnew entrants or re-entrants into the labor market.Û</br></br>Suzanne Schroeder, an EDO spokeswoman, said the nine-day series of storms that slammed northern California last month may have been responsible for at least part of the rise in unemployment.</br></br>ÛÏThe last time there was this big a change was in December 1984 to January 1985, with 1.8 percent," she said. ÛÏWe donÛªt really know why it was so sharp. It may be that the</br></br>In Washington, U.S. Labor Department analyst Howard Hayghe also speculated that flooding in California had kept agricultural workers out of the fields and pushed up unemployment.