The rise in California unemployment rates to a rather disquieting 10.5 percent in February marks a 26-year high. The figures have been consistently on the increase during the past 11-month successive period, as most of the industries in the most densely inhabited US state have been on an alarming payroll-slashing spree.

Moreover, unemployment rates in two other states - Oregon and Nevada - too climbed to more than 10 percent for the first time since April 1983; with their February figures being 10.8 and 10.1 respectively.

Elaborating the possible reason behind the rather high unemployment figures in these states, Sung Won-Sohn - an economics professor at California State University-Channel Islands in Camarillo - said, "The West Coast is more heavily dependent on real estate and the decline there has been more pronounced than in the rest of the US. We are not seeing any signs of stabilization in the job market."

Though California's economic crisis has taken its toll on almost all of its industries, the natural resources, entertainment, education and health industries have been comparatively more resilient than the others.

Terming the alarming unemployment rates as "a huge vicious cycle," economist Steve Levy, of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy, said: "We're in it with other states. It's every place!"