By Shan Li and Andrew Khouri, Los Angeles Times

California continues to be a story of two economies: coastal regions with healthy job growth and inland areas that are still struggling to recover, according to a UCLA report released Thursday.

UCLA economists said in their quarterly forecast that coastal counties stretching from Marin to San Diego have enjoyed employment gains that outpaced the U.S. In contrast, inland areas such as the San Joaquin Valley and the East Bay are showing little or even negative growth.

Years of economic turmoil have especially been hard on the Inland Empire, which includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The region’s October unemployment rate was 9.8 percent, down from 11.7 percent a year earlier. But its jobless levels were still well above the 7 percent in San Diego County and 5.8 percent in Orange County.

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