O.C. Unemployment Hit 9-Year High in June : Economy: Local jobs rose with seasonal hires, but so did the number of job-seekers, as teachers and students joined ranks.

Orange County’s jobless rate, already inflated by the recession, ballooned to a nine-year high of 6.7% in June as lines at unemployment offices filled with students and teachers seeking summer work.

May’s jobless rate in Orange County was 5.9%.

But even though local unemployment rose to its highest point since hitting 7% in August, 1983, the number of jobs at businesses in Orange County jumped in June for the second consecutive month, climbing by 2,900 to a total of 1,137,700 full- and part-time jobs. While still 30,100 jobs below the level a year earlier, when the unemployment rate was 5.4%, the county’s June job tally is the best of 1992.

“The numbers aren’t great, but at least the hemorrhaging of jobs has stopped,” said Anil Puri, dean of the economics department at Cal State Fullerton.

Economist Esmael Adibi, director of the Chapman University Center for Economic Research, said, “It’s a very anemic recovery.”

Economists at the center said in June that their research shows the local recession ended in the fourth quarter of 1991. “But when we compare the averages for the first quarter and the second quarter, we see a net growth of only 5,000 jobs so far this year,” Adibi said. “And we would have liked to have seen a gain of 15,000 or so by now.”

The increase of nearly 3,000 jobs in June was paced by seasonal hiring by retailers and tourism-related businesses such as theme parks and hotels, said Eleanor Jordan, Orange County labor market analyst for the state Employment Development Department.

The big seasonal jump in the jobless rate, which was expected by economists and others who watch the monthly tallies, means that an estimated 91,800 Orange County residents were actively seeking work in June. That was a 14.5% increase from the 80,200 job-seekers reported by the state in May and represents a jump of 20,800 during the past year.

Simultaneous increases in the number of local jobs and the number of county residents seeking work mean that most of the rise in unemployment is not directly connected to the fortunes of local businesses.

There were no large layoffs in early June--the jobless rate information is based on data collected the second week of each month--so the large increase in unemployment appears to have come largely from new college graduates and from teachers and students seeking summer work, Jordan said.

In addition, there were a number of positive economic signs in late May and early June that encouraged people who had dropped out of the job market to jump back in. While the good news was short-lived, the resulting increase in job hunting by so-called discouraged workers helped boost the unemployment rate, Adibi said.

With recent polls showing consumer confidence again on the wane, the number of discouraged workers may start growing again, Puri said. Because they are not counted in unemployment surveys, that could actually help reduce subsequent unemployment rates. “We call that the disguised unemployment,” Puri said.

Jordan said that the July unemployment rate for Orange County, scheduled to be released late next month, will show the effects of a second surge of students and teachers from schools where the spring term did not end until after the June tally was taken.

In addition, ongoing negotiations in Sacramento over the stalled state budget are likely to result in cuts in the government work force during the next few months, Puri said. That will cause more unemployment and could lead to job losses in the private sector, he said.

In the meantime, the increase in June employment did little to offset the yearlong decline in Orange County jobs.

In the 12 months between June 1991 and June 1992, wage and salary employment in the county dropped by 30,100 positions, Jordan said. In the 12 months before that, 56,600 jobs were slashed from county payrolls for a net loss of 86,700 positions since the recession began in July, 1990.

Hardest hit during the past year have been the construction industry, which has lost 5,100 jobs, or 9% of its work force; manufacturing, down 10,700 jobs, or 4.5%, and retail trade, down 8,200 jobs, or 4%.

NOT HIRING: Many O.C. jobless are looking but few have been finding. A14

Jobless Jump

The county unemployment rate increased almost a full point in June. The 6.7% figure is the highest recorded since August, 1983, when it was 7.0%.

Source: State Employment Development Department

Out of Work

Not since August, 1983--when joblessness reached 7.0%--has the county unemployment rate been so high. Still, the current 6.7% figure is well below the 9.4% level recorded in January, 1983.

Source: State Employment Development Department