BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — New numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor show that Kern County’s unemployment remains much higher than the national average.
Unemployment grew to 8.9% in June 2024, up from 8.5% in June 2023. That jump is an even more drastic change from last month to this month where unemployment was at a low 8.3%.
Kern County’s unemployment rate is higher than national and state unemployment rates. California’s state rate is 5.3% and the national rate comes in at 4.3%.
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At the Human Services Center in downtown Bakersfield, seats were filled and people were coming through by the minute, for welfare checks and other services.
“Fast food, construction, landscaping, irrigation, all kinds of stuff I even tried to look for irrigation companies up here. I was an irrigation technician in Virginia before I moved up here,” said Justin Looper, a homeless man applying for welfare.
Looper has been out of a job for seven months and homeless for the better part of a year, after he says a car struck his girlfriend and killed her. He was unable to pay rent and now lives on the Bakersfield streets.