County’s Jobless Rate Dips to 3.8% During February

Increased hiring for government, agricultural and service jobs more than offset layoffs among manufacturing and retail workers and helped Orange County’s unemployment rate dip to 3.8% last month, the state Employment Development Department reported Thursday.

Although the drop, from 4.3% in January, was largely due to seasonal hiring for the spring school semester and the ongoing strawberry harvest throughout the southern portion of the county, EDD Orange County labor analyst Alta Yetter predicted that the county’s strong economy will keep the unemployment rate at the unusually low 4% rate for the next several months.

“The economy is still strong and it’s not dropping,” Yetter explained. “Although there were layoffs last month, more jobs were created overall than were lost.”

According to the state’s data, despite layoffs of 1,200 manufacturing and 1,100 retail workers in February, the county still had a net gain of 5,300 jobs.

Many of the new jobs were created in the government sector as schools hired their teaching and support staffs for the new semester. A total of 2,200 government jobs were created last month. Agricultural employment also grew by 2,200 jobs as landowners hired seasonal laborers to harvest strawberries, among the county’s largest cash crops.

Additionally, hiring in service trades, a group that includes tourism, restaurants and personal services, increased by 1,700 jobs.

Although the number of new jobs increased, so did the number of unemployment insurance claims. According to Yetter, 17,142 claims were filed in February, about 900 more than a month earlier. Overall, the state said, about 50,900 county residents actively sought work last month.