The March number for L.A. County is up from a revised 10.8 percent in February - and it's even higher than during the peak of the recession in the 1990s. "These are very bad numbers, the worst we've seen in most people's memories," economist Jack Kyser told the Business Journal. Get used to it - unemployment is likely to remain in the double-digit range into next year, well after the economy starts to turn around.

The separate payroll survey shows that L.A. employment actually increased by 7,400 jobs between February and March, with entertainment employment up by 9,300 jobs. It's now running at 133,400, which makes it one of the stronger industries in the county. But that was the exception - many of the big sectors lost jobs. Overall payroll employment in L.A. County fell by 149,400 jobs from a year earlier. Here's the EDD release.