Fewer Californians are officially out of work even as unemployment grows for the Golden State’s two biggest economic rivals.
My trusty spreadsheet found another slice of improving economics across the Golden State by eyeballing the number of jobless workers in June, data not adjusted for seasonal swings. The tally of folks counted as unemployed was compared with levels from June 2025 and with those in the rest of the nation.
Yes, California had the nation’s highest number of unemployed, at 999,000. That’s 13% of the nation’s 7.5 million out of work. Next are the state’s economic archrivals: Texas at 781,000 and Florida at 514,000.
But consider the trend lines.
California’s count is down 102,000 in a year – the biggest decline among the states and a contrast with the nation’s 13,000 increase. After California comes Ohio, off 72,000, and New Jersey, off 50,000.
Let’s note that the rivals had the largest increases in job losses. No. 1 was Texas, up 108,000, and No. 2 was Florida, up 79,000.
Uplifting dip
Fewer unemployed Californians, while the nation’s jobless count is basically flat, helps explain California’s improving consumer confidence score as the American psyche sours.
Even taking into account the huge California job market, the recent drop in unemployment equals a 9% improvement, the 12th-best among the states. Ohio had the largest decline at 25%, followed by Rhode Island at 24% and Wyoming at 23%.
Nationally, there were 0.1% more unemployed workers. The biggest jumps were found in Oklahoma at 31%, Connecticut at 29% and Alabama at 28%.
Florida was No. 4, up 18%. Texas ranked No. 6, up 16%.
It’s not just joblessness that helped to boost California optimism.
California’s bosses were adding jobs slowly but at a far faster pace than the rest of the nation in early 2026. The world’s fourth-largest economy, according to one count, also enjoyed booming business output as a flood of venture capital revitalized the state’s tech industry.
So, contemplate contrasts within the Conference Board’s consumer confidence indexes for the three months through July.
California was up 5% over the past year. Meanwhile, the nation’s down 6%, Texas is off 4% and Florida? 8% lower.
The rate
OK, what about California’s usually ugly unemployment rates?
It was 5.2% for June, No. 5 among the states, and above the nation’s 4.4%.
Who was higher? District of Columbia at 6.1%, Kentucky at 5.6%, Arizona at 5.5% and Oregon at 5.3%.
Here, the archrivals fared better: Texas ranked No. 10 with 4.9% and Florida No. 15 with 4.6%. And the lowest rates were South Dakota’s 2% and New Hampshire, North Dakota and Vermont at 2.5%.
But the California rate is dropping, down 0.4 percentage points in a year – the 11th biggest dip among the states. Nationally, the unemployment rate was flat.
The biggest jobless rate jumps were in Connecticut, up 1.2 points, Oklahoma, up 1.1 points, and Arizona and Alabama, up 0.9 points.
And Texas and Florida’s rates were up 0.7 points, the sixth-largest increases.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
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