tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236405782975490260.post4095124571293108098..comments2024-03-20T22:55:32.772-07:00Comments on Valley Economy: Westlands has lowest fallowing in a decade in 2011 while Mendota sets unemployment record (according to CA EDD)Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344751623916759400noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236405782975490260.post-80612804326472500382011-12-14T09:53:02.720-08:002011-12-14T09:53:02.720-08:00If people insist on continuing to use that unemplo...If people insist on continuing to use that unemployment rate, I suppose one way to counter is to note that the unemployment rate increased after they got water and fallowing dropped dramatically.<br /><br />Although the CA EDD estimate is official (My understanding is that they had to come up with some methodology to guestimate unemployment to distribute funds for various social programs), it is garbage and my preference would be for people not to use this number at all in debates.<br /><br />I don't know that the issue is a "lack of sharing" although it is important to note that unemployment and poverty is a permanent, systemic issue in these communities and it has little to do with water.<br /><br />There really isn't any good data source to track short-term ups and downs in unemployment in these small towns. County level data is available, and annual data for cities and larger geographes. None of that data shows any large spikes in unemployment for 2009 in these larger geographies, if anything the increases were lower than that seen in other areas during the recession.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10344751623916759400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236405782975490260.post-17279305799904889712011-12-14T04:58:11.474-08:002011-12-14T04:58:11.474-08:00Jeff, with the large inconsistency in employment n...Jeff, with the large inconsistency in employment numbers between the two reports, it is difficult to counter the valley House members who want to use the 40%+ figures. The issue here seems to be the lack of sharing with the farm worker community. Can you provide a link to the census bureau reports? Do you know if the reduced fallowed lands in Westlands included any land taken out of the irrigation schedule as a result of fallowing via buy-outs by the feds or agreements like Broadmore?<br />Dr. Mark RockwellDr. Mark R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09242889101902490191noreply@blogger.com