Jobless Rate Increases to 2.9% in January

Orange County’s unemployment rate jumped half a point in January to 2.9% from December’s 2.4%, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

The increase in joblessness was expected and was caused largely by seasonal layoffs of retail and service industry workers, said Orange County labor market analyst Eleanor Jordan.

In all, she said, 39,900 county residents were on the unemployment roll in January, up from 33,600 in December.

At the same time, total local wage-and-salary employment--a tally of the number of people actually working at jobs within the county--dipped to 1,202,300, from 1,226,400 in December.

In January, 1989, the county’s unemployment rate was 2.9% and total local wage-and-salary employment was 1,169,500, meaning that county employers created 32,800 jobs during the year, a 2.8% increase.