California’s unemployment rate soars, but worst yet to come

ADAM BEAM and JOCELYN GECKER Associated Press SACRAMENTO (AP) — California lost nearly 100,000 jobs in March, state officials announced Friday, signaling a sudden end to a record 10-year streak of growth because of a coronavirus outbreak that has shuttered nonessential businesses and overwhelmed the state's unemployment office. The unemployment rate in the nation's most populous state was 5.3% in March — a 1.4 percentage point increase that is the largest jump on record since 1976, when state officials began using the current formula for tracking job losses. "We are now in a pandemic-induced recession here in the state of California," Gov. Gavin Newsom said. Still, the numbers are just a glimpse of the pain people are already suffering. The job losses were based on a survey taken