THE RECESSION--TWO PERSPECTIVES : Unemployment: The county figure drops to a six-month low. Seasonal work is responsible for most of the hiring.

Ventura County’s economy showed further signs of rebounding in April, when unemployment fell to its lowest level in six months, the state Employment Development Department reported Thursday.

The county’s jobless rate dropped to 6.1% from 7% a month earlier, posting its third consecutive monthly decline since hitting a four-year high in January.

Job growth was fed by expected seasonal hiring in farming, construction and the hotel and restaurant industry.

Employment levels held steady in manufacturing, retail trade and finance, insurance and real estate, which economic analysts said suggested that the worst of the recession has passed.

“That’s a pretty good sign the underlying economic base is beginning to strengthen,” said Bruce DeVine, chief economist of the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

The number of people out of work countywide fell to 22,400 from 25,300 in March, while the number of people employed jumped to 345,300 from 338,200.

The county’s jobless rate last month was lower than both the 6.5% national rate and the 7.4% state unemployment rate. But it was far higher than the 4.3% rate of April, 1990.

Larry Kennedy, manager of the state employment office in Simi Valley, said employers seem to be laying off fewer workers, as evidenced by the fact that new claims for unemployment insurance at his office were down 15% last month from January levels.

The trouble is that new jobs are not opening up--beyond those in seasonal industries--to absorb great numbers of the unemployed, Kennedy said. Jobs remain relatively scarce in the $8- to $12-per-hour range. The county’s welfare rolls, meanwhile, continue to grow.

“I think there will be a four- to five-month lag before we see an end to the recession in the labor force,” Kennedy said.

Most employers in eastern Ventura County are just beginning to consider expanding their payrolls and hiring more employees, said Steve Rubenstein, president of the 1,400-member Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce.

“A number of businesses have turned around since the war, but everyone is being cautious,” Rubenstein said.

An increase in housing construction, on the heels of a recent turnaround in the residential real estate market, accounted for about 400 additional building trades jobs in April.

Paul Tryon, director of the Building Industry Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, said construction has resumed on some housing projects in Ventura County that were put on hold last year during the real estate slump.

“Because of the upturn in sales activity, work has started on additional phases, but it’s still somewhat limited,” he said.

Agriculture employed 18,000 people in April, compared with 15,200 in March. But the industry employed 20% fewer workers than in April, 1990, a shortfall attributed in part to the continuing effect of the December crop freeze.

Rex Laird, director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said farm employment traditionally peaks in April but may drop precipitously later this year because the freeze destroyed young citrus fruit that would ripen in late summer.

Ventura County Unemployment Rate Ventura County, Oct., 1990 through April, 1991 Comparative rates for April 1990, 1991