More Bad News: 7,300 Jobs Lost In Inland Empire

The struggling housing and construction industry has helped kill thousands of jobs throughout the Inland Empire, according to a published report.

About 7,300 jobs have been lost in Riverside, San Bernardino and eastern Los Angeles counties in 2007, according to state figures published by the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

The job loss contradicts previous predictions of a gain in jobs. Government officials will now have to make difficult financial decisions based on a workforce that is much smaller than originally estimated.

In December, the state had estimated the Inland Empire would gain 32,400 jobs. New figures say, instead, 7,300 jobs were lost.

The higher-than-expected job loss rate compounds the economic situation in the Inland Empire, which has one of the largest foreclosure rates in the nation, up 240 percent in the past year.

Unemployment in the Inland region is 6.7 percent and climbing, up 1.3 percent from last year.