California’s unemployment rate fell slightly in June, from 12.4% to 12.3%. The EDD estimates that about 8,000 more Californians had a job in June than in May, but that’s still 100,000 below the level of June 2009.

Obviously a 0.1% drop in a sky-high unemployment rate isn’t much to cheer about. California’s economic recovery remains anemic. We’d obviously be in much worse straits if we’d listened to Carly Fiorina and not passed a stimulus – job losses would have been far greater and our unemployment crisis would be even worse than it is now.

Unfortunately, Sacramento did listen to Arnold Schwarzenegger. For three years now the state legislature has been cutting spending, pursuing austerity before it was in vogue. In 2009, the budget was cut by over $10 billion, including the mass layoff of at least 16,000 teachers. (Over 30,000 got pink slips, but federal stimulus funds helped almost half get hired back, usually on temporary one-year contracts. And Fiorina still says the stimulus was a bad idea!)

The impact of this state austerity is now clear. Instead of adding more jobs, California is mired in deep unemployment. Our government should be playing the role of stimulator, job creator, and wealth generator. Instead, under the guidance of a right-wing governor and a state legislature dominated by the right-wing minority party thanks to the 2/3rds rule, California’s government is being held back from playing this role.

If Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman get their way this November and are sent to the US Senate and the governor’s office, the situation will only grow much worse. Both have pledged to produce higher unemployment as a core plank of their plans for California.

There’s no doubt that the economic picture isn’t great, and the Obama Administration’s unwillingness to fight hard for a second stimulus is going to prolong the recession. But the first rule of economic recovery is “do no further harm.” Both Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman pledge to do a lot more harm, and we should keep that in mind as voters evaluate them both between now and November 2.