JNN 24 Nov 2010 : California companies continue to lay off workers, with the majority being low tier workers like janitors and maintenance staff, as the holiday season starts.

For the past 15 months, California’s unemployment rate has stood at 12 percent or more.

Data from the state employment department shows California is losing on average 50,000 jobs per month.

Labor expert Mike Chavez believes the job market has never been worse in California.

He told JNN  that some of the larger companies are compounding the situation by letting more workers go before the end of the year.

“We’ve got banks, we’ve got big corporations that are starting to recover for themselves and make more money, and yet they’re cutting people at the bottom, the lowest paid people,” Chavez said.

Companies like JP Morgan Chase say the layoffs announced before the holidays give employees time to find new jobs.

Analysts say holiday layoffs occur when a company wants to boost its bottom line to appease its share holders. They also say bad publicity from the firings is usually outweighed the increased prices and stock.

A woman, who worked as a janitor in a Los Angeles high rise before she and dozens of her co-workers were let go, told JNN that they are fighting to get their jobs back as finding a job in California has become practically impossible.

“It’s a very hard thing because I’m a single mom and I have two kids that I have to support by myself. It has hit me really bad,” she said.

Chavez said the US would not fully recover from this recession unless it adopts a labor system that focuses more on the workers and less on what happens on Wall Street.