California's Jobs Market Is in Trouble

California's jobs market has been struggling, despite the U.S. economy booming, with the state trailing behind the rest of the country for job growth and reporting a higher unemployment rate than the national average.

In December 2023, the latest data made available by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), California had 830,000 job openings. While higher month-over-month—with 751,000 openings the month before—the number was much lower than a year prior, when it stood at 1,244,000 in December 2022.