I agree that the color choices aren't great, but the simplicity of the design is quite nice. (So many of them end up being Flashy nightmares.) I'd like to see more info graphics like this one, which communicate trends in a clear new way.

Clever - but the transition between the colours is a bit deceptive.

At different points different areas will snap from "dark green" to "light red" - which is really only an incremental change on the scale, but looks very stark as a transition.

Agreed, it really should be something like

* Dark greed good

* Light green not so good

* Light Red Bad

* Dark Red really bad

"dark greed" != good

(sorry! could not resist)

Such an odd distribution of 21 - 30 % unemployment counties. I guess if California were an island, living in a "landlocked" county would mean especially bad news.

The seasonal changes are interesting. More work in the valley during the summer. More work at the ski areas in the winter.

What do they do just north of SF?

Mostly farmland, scattered small towns. A lot of wineries and grape farms. World class restaurants, a lot of tourism.