Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/22/2011 -- A survey of 42,000 California businesses has shown that the state lost 29,000 jobs in May.

The unemployment rate for the state was 11.7 percent, the second highest in the country, after Nevada. A federal survey of around 5,500 households in California shows that there were around 2.1 million unemployed people in the state in May. California has gained only 87,500 jobs in the last 12 months.

California’s Bay Area also saw job losses of around 2,000 people. The losses there were primarily in the hi-tech sector. While some regions such as Sonoma County gained 1,700 jobs, others such as San Joaquin County lost 1,400 jobs. California’s figures were consistent with the downturn in the country’s job creation rate in May. There were only 54,000 jobs created nationwide last month.

Hound, a job search engine, has seen an increase in the number of job postings available only on employer websites. CEO Harrison Barnes attributes it to the fact that a lot of small businesses are usually reluctant to shell out hundreds of dollars on the usual job boards.

Hound, being a job search engine, gathers jobs directly from employer websites and has found almost 87,000 jobs available in California. The sectors with the most job openings were: healthcare (17,000+), sales (9,000+), customer service (6,000+), and financial services (4,500+).