According to this afternoon's Sacramento Bee, a U.C.L.A. economist has said that state worker layoffs will add four-tenths of a percentage point to California's double-digit unemployment.
At the moment, California has 11% unemployment, the worst in 70 years. Push that up to 11.4% or 11.5%, and you have the eighth largest economy in the world pulling down the the biggest.
Politically, Obama cannot afford to have that statistic linger in the double digits...
