County Jobless Rate Remains 2.9%, Second Lowest in State
Orange County’s unemployment rate remained steady at 2.9% in April, the second lowest rate in the state and one of the lowest in the nation.
The April rate, reported by the state Employment Development Department, was unchanged from the March rate and also matched the 2.9% reported for January.
Only San Mateo County had a lower April rate, 2.7%.
Statewide, the April jobless rate was 5%. In neighboring counties it ranged from 4% in San Diego to 5.7% in Riverside, while the national rate was 5.4%.
An EDD spokesman said comparisons of April figures with those from prior months could be misleading because the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics changed its survey methodology in April.
The bureau conducts the major labor market surveys that form the basis for individual county jobless estimates. Those changes, said the EDD spokesman, will cause the monthly unemployment rate in Los Angeles to fall slightly and could cause the rates in many other California counties to bump upward.
Because of the change in survey methodology, the state EDD labor analysts were not able to provide estimates of job losses and new job creation within specific industries, as has been done in the past.
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