The Tri-Counties have historically faired well in bad times, but the latest unemployment figures released by the U.S. Labor Department show that California’s budget woes and the nationwide recession may have finally begun to catch up to the region.

While the highest unemployment rate in the Tri-Counties is in Ventura County, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties have both seen significant setbacks in recent months.

Ventura County has the highest unemployment rate in the Tri-Counties at 10.9 percent. While it is doing worse than the national average, it is still better than California’s 12.1 percent unemployment rate.

The full version of this article is only available to print subscribers. To view everything the Business Times offers, see this week’s print version or SUBSCRIBE to the print edition for $49.99 today.