Local News in Brief : L.A. Loses Jobless Case

A federal judge refused Thursday to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the Department of Labor from implementing a new method for calculating unemployment in Los Angeles that city and county officials said could cost the region $7 million a year in job-training funds.

U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer said in a brief ruling that local officials “cannot succeed on the merits” of their claim that the Labor Department should have issued a public notice before revising the regulations, under which Los Angeles’ unemployment rate would have dropped from 5.9% to 5.1% last year.

The revised regulations, adopted in response to required federal budget cuts, calculate unemployment based on state calculations, rather than detailed household surveys.

“I recognize the very serious predicament that the city and county find themselves in, and I recognize that if there was an opportunity to subject the use of this method to public scrutiny, there might be some different result,” Pfaelzer said. “But my hands are tied.”