California might be in recession already

Mounting job losses and a rising unemployment rate in California have raised fears that some regions of the state have slipped into recession and the rest of the state is on the edge. In January, California lost more than 20,000 jobs, keeping the unemployment rate at nearly 6 percent, according to data released yesterday by the state Employment Development Department.

The data show that Orange County and the Inland Empire have been losing jobs for the past two quarters – fitting a commonly used definition of a regional recession.