Dirty Little Secret: Unemployment in CA Is High Because of Vaccine Mandates and AB5

(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Gaslighting Gavin Newsom has been on a crowfest since escaping his own unemployment, boasting about the rate that California has created jobs.

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Beyond keeping his job, Hair Gel has little to crow about. Homelessness is still an exacerbating issue, wildfires are still raging, and California’s unemployment rate is still high: at 7.5 percent. This is one percentage point lower than last month’s 7.6 percent.

The state is creating jobs at, according to Newsom, a record rate, yet unemployment is high. Por que?!

Cal Matters reports on this conundrum:

Although the Golden State created a whopping 44% of the nation’s new jobs last month, its unemployment rate remained the second-highest in the country at 7.5%, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. That’s essentially unchanged from the 7.6% unemployment rate California notched in both July and June — and hardly different from the 7.7% rate in May, a month before the state ended most coronavirus restrictions and fully reopened its economy.

It goes on to blame lack of child care, overwhelmed human resources departments, and other factors:

Some experts had predicted that the federal government’s Sept. 4 cutoff of expanded unemployment benefits for 2.2 million Californians would prompt people to reenter the workforce, but there hasn’t been a noticeable shift so far. Around 55,000 Californians filed new jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 11, a decrease of fewer than 3,000 people from the week before, federal data show. And the Golden State lost more than 6,000 education and health services payroll jobs in August, exacerbating an already dire nurse shortage.

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Not one mention of two things: Vaccine mandates or the fallout from Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) being signed into law.

In a glowing story in the Los Angeles Times, a small arts company in Boyle Heights has come back to life with in-person classes and workshops, after the pandemic forced it to close its doors and go online. However, the owner of the arts company makes this huge admission that, as usual, the L.A. Times fails to explore.

The bill’s requirements have put extra stress on small, nonprofit theaters, where performers and those behind the scenes typically volunteer their time in exchange for experience, exposure and, on occasion, a small stipend. Emmanuel Deleage, executive director at Casa 0101, says the new law could generate permanent closures, no matter how well-intentioned.

“There’s been a good amount of relief money out there, and we’ve been able to access that. So we’ll get through the pandemic,” he says. “AB 5 is another story.”

L.A. Times ends the telling there, without a mention that this company is only one of a million small businesses in California that this law has decimated.

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Businesses that used to offer quality employment for skilled professionals and artists are hamstrung thanks to this law. Skilled professionals, like the ones above, who need or desire to work remotely are also blocked. Yet, two local media outlets refuse to even bring this up as a factor in the high unemployment. It’s a horrible disconnect, and shows that Newsom’s “homegrown team” is still at work in assisting him in his delusional flossing about California being Number 1. California is still leading the way in career destruction.

Then there are those vaccine mandates that Hair Gel is so proud of. As of today, we have the Los Angeles Police Department officers and staff, Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters, students and a professor in the California UC system suing the State over the mandates. California healthcare and government workers, who are required to be vaccinated by the end of this month or face termination, are also not hurrying to comply, and many are actively resisting.

As one Sacramento health worker stated,

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Since the mandate applies statewide, workers cannot go work at another hospital without vaccine requirements nearby. Brown is frustrated that hospital administrators and lawmakers, who have “zero covid exposure,” are the ones making those decisions.

“Hospitals across the country posted signs that said ‘Health care heroes work here.’ Where is the reward for our heroes?” he asked. “Right now, the hospitals are telling us the reward for the heroes: ‘If you don’t get the vaccine, you’re fired.'”

Cal Matters did report that traveling nurses are refusing assignments in California because of the mandate.

California‘s new vaccine mandate for health care workers is also compounding a staffing shortage that predated the pandemic but has worsened amid widespread burnout from 18 long months of treating COVID-19 patients. Pushed to the breaking point, many understaffed hospitals are seeking to hire temporary, traveling nurses — only to have some of them turn down California assignments because they don’t want to get vaccinated, CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang reports.

Dr. Tom Sugarman, an East Bay emergency physician and senior director of government affairs at Vituity, a physicians’ group: “Nurses are getting paid premiums to work in Texas and Florida where (COVID is) surging right now. Those nurses have to come from somewhere, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some are coming from California.”

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That’s just academia, emergency services, and healthcare. The service industry is taking particularly hard hits as well, with hostess and wait staff required to be vaccinated and wear a mask for 10-15 hour shifts, or being required to play mask police for venues that require indoor masking. My colleague Becca Lower reported about the Emmys, and their perfect picture of the caste system that exists in California, where celebrities, politicians, and those who have access get to go around unmasked, while the people doing the work behind the scenes are required to be masked. Many individuals who used to work in these service industries are refusing to participate in this crooked game.

In a bid to attract new workers, the beloved Sacramento-area sushi restaurant Mikuni expanded benefits and hosted a job fair — but saw only three applicants. Eight of its nine locations will now close Mondays due to the staffing shortage.

California Globe is one media outlet that does an unvarnished layout on the brutal stats of California unemployment. It’s not pretty.

Last month, California ranked in 3-way tie for second worst of the 50 states in highest unemployment ranking in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This month California ranks at 50th for highest unemployment in the U.S, only ahead of Nevada.

While most states remained fairly static from last month, California did improve very slightly from 7.6% to 7.5% unemployment.

The ten states with the highest unemployment are Democrat-run States.

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California is second to last of that 10 worst. Nevada is at 7.7. As long as His Hairfulness remains willfully oblivious to his horrible policies, this will not change any time soon.

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