County’s jobless rate hits record high
The unemployment rate in Riverside County was 15.3%in April – the highest level recorded in the California Employment Development Department’s electronic database going back three decades, figures released Friday, May 22, show.Last month’s jobless rate, based on preliminary estimates, exceeded March's rate by roughly 10 percentage points, before the full impact of the government public health orders stemming from the coronavirus emergency took effect, according to EDD data.The April rate was nearly 12 percentage points higher than the year-ago level, when countywide unemployment stood at 3.7%.The EDD's online database, which supplies regional metrics that begin in January 1990, indicate that the last time the jobless rate was close to the current high mark was in July 201