Jobs Surge in Orange County : Unemployment Rate Falls to 16-Year Low

Riding the crest of near-breathless job growth, the unemployment rate in Orange County fell to a 16-year low of 3.5% in December, the state’s Employment Development Department reported Thursday.

The county’s yearlong, slow downward spiral of unemployment kicked into high gear in December, with the rate plummeting three-tenths of a percentage point from the 3.8% rate of October and November. As recently as December, 1983, the local unemployment rate was 5%.

Electronics companies, which played such a critical role in the county’s employment boom of the mid-60s, are once again at the center of the county’s rosy employment picture. But “every one of our major industries reported good growth in December,” said Alta Yetter, labor market analyst at the department.

Economic forecasters do not see this as a short-lived blip. Instead, after an anticipated seasonal unemployment increase in January, they project that by March, the county’s unemployment rate could drop near lows not seen in three decades.

The county’s December unemployment rate, which is not seasonally adjusted, was half that of the state’s 7% seasonally adjusted rate. And it was far better than the national unemployment rate that averaged 7.2% for the same period.

Only 45,300 Orange County residents were without jobs in December, compared to 49,800 in November, and 61,500 in December, 1983, the department said. The county’s civilian labor force in December was nearly 1.3 million.

Increased retail hiring for the Christmas season played a role in the impressive figures, but department analysts say the best sign is that the employment gains were felt across the wide spectrum of Orange County industries.

Still, in gearing up for the Christmas season, the retail sector posted a record 187,000 jobs. That is 5,400 more workers than were employed in November, and nearly 8,600 more retail employees than in December of 1983.

The lowest unemployment rate recorded in the county was 2.5% in September, 1955. The last time the unemployment rate was below December’s 3.5% was in May, 1969, when it fell to 3.3% during the county’s high technology boom years, the department reported.

In an unusual cry for help, the department also noted that there is a severe shortage of job applicants--and an overabundance of job listings--at all five employment development offices in Orange County. “The general public doesn’t realize that whether they are working or not, they can come in here and apply for jobs,” said Helen Fassinger, marketing supervisor for the department.

The department is listing more than 1,500 unfilled jobs in Orange County, many of them in the electronics field. A large number of these jobs, however, are unskilled and low-paying. So, despite the rosy figures for December, many county residents remain underemployed.

Electronics industry employment in Orange County totaled 59,100 in December, a record that continues to grow monthly. At Emerson Electric Industrial Controls in Santa Ana, more than 30 of the firm’s 800 jobs are unfilled. About half of them are assembly jobs that pay an average $7.40 an hour, according to Jim Bryant, the company’s industrial relations manager.

The high cost of living in Orange County keeps unskilled workers in short supply here, said Bryant, whose company makes computer power supplies. Because these unskilled workers are so coveted by local electronics firms, “those who are here tend to play musical chairs” with the companies, he added.

It is so hard to find an ample supply of unskilled workers in Orange County, Bryant said, that his company plans to establish a sub-assembly operation in Mexico later this year. The action is not so much to save on labor costs, but to ensure adequate manpower, he said.

Meanwhile, EECO Inc., a Santa Ana manufacturer of computer systems and other electronic components, reports that it is facing a critical shortage of computer programmers, many of whom earn upward of $35,000 annually. “My biggest headache is the headhunters who get these people to jump from company to company,” said Robert Allen, the company’s vice president of administration.

EECO employs 650 workers in Orange County, and expects about one-quarter of its jobs to turn over this year. Up to 65 new jobs will be added, Allen said.

Although Orange County’s employment showing is among the top 20 nationally, it is far from the leader.

The city of Nashua, N. H., posted the lowest unemployment rate in the nation last month, at 2.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

To the contrary, the city of McAllen, Tex., near the Mexican border, posted the nation’s highest unemployment rate last month at 19%. With agriculture as its biggest employer, the winter freeze that ruined last year’s citrus crop has left thousands jobless there.