Silicon Valley unemployment jumps more than 50% from Dec '07

The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reports:

The unemployment rate in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area was 7.8 percent in December 2008, above the year-ago estimate of 5.1 percent, according to a report released Friday by the state Employment Development Department.

This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 9.1 percent for California and 7.1 percent for the nation during the same period.

That's a big jump of nearly 53% compared with the year ago period. Plus, it doesn't take into account contract workers which are a large segment of the workforce. And it is a lagging indicator... Clearly, this is a trend that still had legs and will result in far more job losses.