Mendota Calif Unemployment Rate? 41 Percent

As America continues struggling to come back from the economic recession, one town in California has become emblematic of the nation's financial hardship.

The town of Mendota Calif. has been stuck at a whopping 41 percent unemployment rate, and it's causing crime and drug abuse to rise, and local businesses to plummet as citizens no longer spend the same money around town.

Said one waitress of the slow business at her local restaurant, "That is the way people are now, They just come in here and look. They just come in here to kill the time. And then they take off."

Mendota Calif Unemployment Rate, 41 Percent
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The customer seemed interested in a black blouse offered for $1 at the thrift store. But instead of buying it, she set it on the front counter. Maybe tomorrow, she told the cashier, she would have the money. Or the next day. But not now. Welcome to life in Mendota -- the unemployment capital of California. With a 41 percent jobless rate, the town's social fabric is tearing at the seams. Alcoholism and crime are on the rise. To save money, some mothers wash and re-use disposable diapers. Unemployed men with nothing to do wander the streets and sit on benches.