The Oakland Tribune reported this past week that local business leaders from San Bernardino are fighting to keep their enterprise zone benefits.

Wendy Clement, manager of the San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone, and local business owners traveled to Sacramento on Wednesday to ask lawmakers to continue funding the enterprise zone program, which gives tax breaks to businesses that relocate to or create jobs in a specific area.

Clement claims that there have been over 1,035 new jobs created in their enterprise zone, and the EZ program is one of the main catalysts for that growth.

Craig Johnson, president of the California Association of Enterprise Zones, said some lawmakers and state officials have proposed scaling back the enterprise zone program and its tax breaks, with the aim of bringing in money to balance the state’s books.

“They’re all scrambling for dollars,” Johnson said. “A lot of folks look at the tax credits that are taken and they believe that by abolishing the program, those credits will translate into more dollars in the treasury.” But that’s not true, Johnson said. Without the program and its tax breaks, some businesses would leave California and others would go out of business, he said.

Although payroll job losses slowed significantly, the state unemployment rate continued to climb in August, rising three-tenths to 12.2 percent, its highest level since 1940’s record 14.7 percent. From a survey of 5500 households, the state Employment Development Dept reported that 14 California counties now have jobless rates of 15 percent or more, and nearly 30 percent of the state’s unemployed workers have been jobless for over six months. However, EDD’s employer payroll survey showed substantial improvement, with 12,300 jobs lost in August, compared to 38,900 in July and an average of 73,700 for the previous six months. California’s trade, transportation & utilities sector and the construction industry suffered the biggest declines last month, down 7100 and 7000 jobs respectively, followed by manufacturing (-2800). Educational and health services added 6000 positions, along with information (3400) and government (2000).

The Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific predicts that California’s unemployment rate will remain above 12 percent for all of 2010, peaking at 12.6 percent next spring. A return to the state’s pre-recession unemployment levels (under 6 percent) may not happen before 2013. UCLA’s Anderson Forecast is slightly more optimistic, projecting a peak of 12.2 percent and double-digit unemployment until sometime in 2011.

The Recession’s Uncounted Casualties

They’re not a factor in the unemployment rate, but they are either out of work or stymied by the recession into working fewer hours than they’d like, often at reduced wages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that California’s underemployment rate – a broader index which includes unemployed people as well as people forced to take part-time or odd jobs, and those who have quit job hunting out of discouragement – is currently at 18.5 percent, up from 11.7 percent one year ago. An estimated 1.7 million Californians are working part time because full-time positions aren’t available, and about 34,000 would-be workers have grown too discouraged to continue job hunting.

California’s Enterprise Zones need to be expanded to create job incentives.