California has seen job openings plunge 30% this year even as its unemployment rate has spiked — as businesses and residents alike fled the high taxes and soaring cost of living in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state.

The Democrat-run stronghold — where Newsom implemented a controversial $20 minimum wage hike for fast food workers in April — had 641,000 job openings in August, compared to 920,000 in August 2023, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed.

Meanwhile, the year-over-year unemployment rate in September increased to 5.3% from 5% — more than a percentage point above the national rate of 4.1% and the second worst in the US, the data showed. Only Nevada had a higher jobless rate at 5.6%.

The state’s high taxes, along with rampant crime since the pandemic from progressive policies, has led to an exodus by several large companies to business-friendly havens. Elon Musk’s X and Tesla, as well as Oracle; Chevron, Kelly Moore Paints, and investment firm Charles Schwab, have relocated to Texas in the past few years.