The U.S. Conference of Mayors is out with a new report projecting that 164,000 jobs will be lost in the L.A. area between now and the end of the year, the second-highest job loss in the nation after New York (here's the OC Register story). The number is a bit out of context because it covers the entire L.A.-OC region, which is not the way the government tabulates employment data. Unemployment in L.A. County is much higher and broad-based than, say, unemployment in OC. These things matter because at some point there will be lobbying efforts to provide aid for this or that region. Higher jobless pockets should be given priority. It’s a virtual certainty that L.A.’s unemployment rate will top 10 percent in the next few months, perhaps by quite a bit (December's report is due out on Friday). By the way, the NY metro area may be losing more jobs than L.A. in 2009, but it will have a lower unemployment rate.