Ouch! L.A. jobless rate hits 5%

The March number is the highest since March 2006, and it's quite a jump from February's 4.6 percent level. It's also higher than the state's 4.8 percent unemployment rate and the national 4.4 percent rate. So is this a big deal for the local economy? Probably not - we're still a ways off from the 7 percent levels in 2003 - but it's worth noting that L.A. County saw a population gain of just 6,900 between July 1, 2005 and July 1, 2006. That's a 90 percent decline from the annual average population increase between 2001 and 2005. To give you some comparison, Riverside/San Bernardino's population growth was also down, but only by 11.7 percent. Perhaps growth is slowing because job availability is slowing. But one month is not a trend, so beware of jumping to too many conclusions. Also keep in mind that in a separate survey, total employment in the county grew by 17,000 jobs over the February number (and by 37,100 jobs from March 2006).