Seasonal Hiring Fails to Reduce O.C. Jobless Rate : Employment: Surge of school, retail jobs masks loss of 1,800 permanent positions in manufacturing and construction.

ANAHEIM — A seasonal surge of school and retail hiring kept Orange County’s jobless rate virtually unchanged in October. Unemployment edged up only a tenth of a point to 6.6% from 6.5% in September, the state Employment Development Department reported Wednesday.

But the temporary hiring masks the longer-range effect of a reported loss of 1,800 permanent positions in manufacturing and construction during the month.

October’s jobless report also underscores fundamental changes in the economic makeup of the county as the recession wears on, as federal and state environmental rules tighten, defense industry spending declines and banks and thrifts lend less money for real estate development.

The construction loss reduced the number of Orange County jobs in that industry to 50,700, down 33% from 75,600 in October, 1989.

A separate report Wednesday also indicates that things aren’t likely to get better soon in the building industry, a key business segment. The industry-supported Construction Industry Research Board said the number of building permits issued in Orange County through the first 10 months of the year remained far below the peaks of 1988 and 1989 and failed even to equal the anemic level achieved in recessionary 1991.

For the first 10 months of this year, builders took out permits for construction of just 5,341 housing units. That was down 5.8% from the first 10 months of 1991 and was just a third of the total--14,023 permits--issued from January through October in 1989, the peak year of the county’s 1980s building boom.

The CIRB report also shows that the value of all major commercial, industrial and retail construction during the first 10 months of this year was off 57% from the same period in 1991, falling to $118.7 million from $275.9 million.

The October employment report also showed that manufacturers in the county cut 1,000 jobs from their payrolls, bringing total manufacturing employment to 222,100, down 14.5% from 259,800 in October, 1989.

The bulk of the growth in the county’s employment base during the past decade has been in the service industries--including health and financial services, retailing, tourism, business services such as accounting and lawyering and personal services such as auto detailing and hair styling. But the recession has chewed away at that job base as well.

In addition to the net loss of 62,700 construction and manufacturing jobs since October, 1989, service industry payrolls in Orange County have been trimmed by 14,800 jobs, or 1.7%, to a four-year low of 855,900.

Economists who specialize in local forecasting have said that they do not expect Orange County’s employment picture to improve much in 1993. The most optimistic report, issued in late October by the economics research center at Cal State Fullerton, called for a job increase of less than 1% next year. The 12,000 jobs that would be created under that scenario would replace just 15% of the 77,800 jobs lost during the past three years.

October’s EDD report showed that 90,000 Orange County residents were unemployed during the month--1,700 more than the 88,300 tallied in September but 2,600 fewer than the total in August, when the county’s jobless rate was 6.7%.

At the same time, the state employment agency said, the number of county residents with jobs increased by 1,800 to 1,274,700 during the month.

The unemployment rate increased at the same time that the number of employed county residents rose because of a seasonal rise in the so-called civilian labor force, which swelled with an influx of job seekers.

In a companion report on employment by businesses in Orange County, EDD labor market analyst Eleanor Jordan said returning school employees added 6,100 positions to local government payrolls, and general merchandising stores added 1,300 jobs as they geared up for the holiday season.

Those increases partly offset the manufacturing and construction job losses for a net gain in October of 5,700 jobs on local payrolls.

The number of jobs added by employers during the month doesn’t match the jobless-rate report’s estimate that 1,700 more county residents were out of work than in September. The apparent discrepancy occurs because the jobless-rate report, which showed 90,000 people out of work in October--estimates the number of unemployed Orange County residents, regardless of where they previously worked. The wage and salary employment tally, by contrast, measures the number of jobs located within the county.

In the year since October, 1991, Jordan said, the only employment sector in the county that gained jobs was transportation and public utilities services, which gained 500 positions for a total of 37,900.

Manufacturing lost 12,700 jobs in the 12-month period; retail trade lost 8,800; and construction was down by 5,000.

O.C. Jobless Rate Up Slightly

The jobless rate in Orange County increased by one-tenth of a percentage point from September to 6.6% in October. There was a gain of 5,700 jobs, almost all of it seasonal as schools continued to add staff for the fall and retailers began hiring holiday help. The jobless rate through the recession:

Where the Jobs Are

Nearly all sectors of the local non-agricultural economy have trimmed payrolls. Only transportation and public utilities actually added jobs. That sector employed 37,900 people in October, up from 37,400 in October, 1991.

Oct. ’91 Oct. ’92 ‘91-’92 % change Mining 1,400 1,300 -7.1% Construction 55,700 50,700 -8.9 Manufacturing 234,800 222,100 -5.4 Transportation public utilities 37,400 37,900 +1.3 Wholesale trade 79,100 78,300 -1.0 Retail trade 79,100 78,300 -1.0 Finance, insurance, real estate 96,800 95,100 -1.8 Other services 325,800 322,800 -1.0 Government 129,800 128,500 -1.0