New Scary Statistic: Underemployed

Between employers scaling back hours and impose work furlough days, your job might not be the full-time gainful employment that it used to be.

And you're not alone -- the most recent numbers show the worst underemployment levels since the numbers were first counted starting in 1994.

21.9 percent of Californians no longer have full-time jobs, far more than the already terrible 12.2 percent who are entirely unemployed.

The number reflects not just those working part time, but also those who have simply given up trying to find a job in this market.

That makes for a total of over four million Californians either working less or not at all.

"All the data tell us that this is the worst economic downturn since World War II," Paul Wessen, an economist with the Employment Development Department, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Might be time to learn a new skill, like train hopping or carving wooden nickles.

Jackson West prefers to call it "thunderemployment."