SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business -- State data show more than 143,000 jobs lost in past year Levy said consumers are being hit with a “triple whammy of rising job losses, sharp drops in their housing and stock market wealth and tightening access to credit.” He said the state's jobless rate could surge as high as 9 percent – approaching the highs of the post-Cold War recession – within the next year. That is not good at all, but that is the way we are heading sad to say. The job losses hit a wide variety of retailers. Over the past year in San Diego County, 1,000 jobs were lost in garden and home supply stores, 900 in auto lots, 600 in furniture showrooms, 400 in general merchandise stores, 300 in health boutiques and beauty salons and 100 in clothing stores. I used to work for a Garden business.