Unemployment at 10.5%

January joblessness in L.A. County is up from a revised 9.2 percent in December (and 6 percent in January 2008), but the really bad news is that a whopping 86,100 payroll jobs were lost from the previous month. Basically, the local economy just fell like a rock. Most every sector was hit, with the biggest month-to-month loss in trade, transportation and utilities (23,600). Within that category, retail trade was down 15,100, probably an indication of stores closures and the like. Also getting hammered was the entertainment industry, losing 22,300 jobs - a 16.9 percent drop from December and a 4.4 percent from a year earlier. This tends to be a volatile sector, but by any measure that's a huge loss – and a somewhat surprising one. Government posted the only month-over increase, gaining 300 jobs. The state's unemployment rate for January was 10.1 percent, the highest since June 1983, and the U.S. was 7.6 percent. Here's the EDD release.