Grim Frustration: Plight of California's Jobless Cracks Window on Depths of Obama Depression

An interesting piece on the depths of the human toll from the Obama depression, at the New York Times, "Unemployment Depths Seen in California Peer Group":

CORONA, Calif. — The analysts pore over the numbers every month, the full menagerie of economic indicators. President Obama and Mitt Romney trade barbs over who is at fault for a sluggish recovery. But here, in a region with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, other numbers often loom larger.

There are the roughly 1,600 résumés that Byron Reeves has sent out since he lost his job in accounting nearly four years ago, and the paltry 10 or so interviews they have produced. There is the $300 check that Yundra Thomas could not write to send his daughter to band camp, because he has been out of work for six months.

Each week, Mr. Reeves and Mr. Thomas gather with 40 or so other unemployed workers in a small, barren and fluorescent-lit room here, in a kind of self-help program that is part of California’s official effort to help residents find jobs. Most have been unemployed for months or years. Time spent with them at several gatherings over many months reveals a postrecession landscape where grim frustration battles with the simple desire to find a way out.

RTWT.

PREVIOUSLY: "LBCC Plans Full-Time Faculty Layoffs: Administration Cites Need to Cut $2 Million in College Programs." And Governor Brown wants to raise taxes, which will drive more businesses out of state and put more people out of work. We're in the best of hands!