Jobless Rate Falls to 2.4% in County During December

With seasonal retail hiring adding thousands of workers to payrolls, Orange County’s unemployment rate dropped to 2.4% in December from 2.6% in November, the state Employment Development Department reported.

The jobless rate was the lowest since the 2.4% recorded in December, 1988.

The EDD estimated the number of unemployed workers in the county last month at 32,800, down from 36,200 in November.

Total number of jobs in the county rose 2.4% to 1.19 million in December from 1.16 million in December, 1988.

While the major reason for the increase in employment from November was retail hiring, the big gain over the entire year was in the service industries.

Service employment grew by 12,700 jobs from December, 1988, to 296,800 jobs, EDD labor market analyst Eleanor Jordan said.

The biggest increases were in hotel and lodging, up 2,700; health, up 2,400; business services, up 1,900, and amusement and recreation, up 1,400.

The biggest decline was in the aerospace industry, which lost 3,500 jobs during the year to end December with 93,400 employees.

Although job growth in the county has been dropping steadily from a high of nearly 9% in 1984, more than 4,100 jobs were added to payrolls in Orange County in December, Jordan said.

And the county continues to maintain the lowest unemployment rate among California’s large urban counties and the third-best rate in the state, trailing only suburban San Mateo County, at 2.2%, and Marin County, at 2.3%.

Among other Southern California counties, Los Angeles posted a 5% jobless rate for December, San Diego’s was 3.4%, San Bernardino reported 4.4% and Riverside’s was 6.1%. The statewide average unemployment rate in December was 5.3%.