Unemployment Rate Hits 9% in January : Labor: The figure appears to reflect a post-holiday trend of more joblessness and a continuing weakness in the state economy. Weather is blamed for a slowdown in agricultural hiring.

Ventura County’s unemployment rate increased to 9% in January, partly erasing robust job gains made during the holidays as bad weather slowed hiring in the county’s agricultural industry, labor officials said.

The county’s employed labor force dropped by 3,000 from December to 350,300, following the seasonal trend of falling employment after the holidays, according to a report released Monday by the state Employment Development Department.

But the number of jobs reported by Ventura County employers was also down by 3,100 from 12 months before, signaling a continued weakness in the California economy. Statewide, the jobless rate was 8.5% in January, while nationally the figure stood at 7.1%, labor officials said.

The unemployment rate in Ventura County peaked at 10.2% in November--the highest rate in nearly 10 years--before falling sharply to 8.7% in December.

The job picture was dismal for some industries, with construction down 900 jobs in January and retail trade off 2,100 positions from the end of the holiday shopping season.

Richard Bromser, business manager for the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, predicted no immediate relief for the building trades in Ventura County, where unemployment ranges from 25% to 35%.

“We’re going to have a devastating year in construction in Ventura County,” said Bromser. “We expect business will be half of what it was last year--and last year was a bad year.”

For the few construction projects still available, bids have been so low that union contractors have little chance to win contracts, Bromser said, adding that the loss of high-paying jobs aggravates the local economic slump.

“There’s only one way out of a recession, and that’s for people to go back to work at jobs that are meaningful and pay well enough to provide a decent living,” he said.

Agricultural officials blamed heavy rains for keeping many pickers out of the county’s strawberry fields and reducing some of the demand for fieldworkers in January. According to the Ventura County Flood Control District, there were 14 days with rain in January.

“Those rains set us way back as far as volume goes,” said Joe Doud, ranch supervisor for Bob Jones Ranch of Oxnard, one of the area’s largest strawberry producers. “Every time we got going, the rain would knock us down. It’s been kind of frustrating.”

Like many of the county’s berry growers, the Bob Jones Ranch maintains its own list of qualified pickers, Doud said, with the work force in an average season growing from 100 at the beginning of the year to 600 by now. Because of the rains, the ranch has hired only 200 laborers so far this year.

“We would ordinarily be picking six days a week, but because of the rain and low volume, we’re only picking two or three days a week,” Doud said.

Muddy fields also kept pickers out of many citrus orchards during January, said Ralph De Leon of Servicios Agricolas Mexicanos, a labor contracting firm in Santa Paula.

“Some of the fields were so muddy we couldn’t work for a week or two at a stretch,” said De Leon, whose company supplies up to 300 employees to local citrus growers.

“The workers have probably lost 40% of their wages because of the rain,” he said. “It’s been hard on the workers. People have rents to pay, food to buy, utilities and bills to pay. An unemployment check is not going to pay the $800-a-month rent.”

Despite the weather-related slowdown in parts of the agriculture industry, some crops fared better. In fact, Ventura County farm employment increased by 1,500 in January, according to the state report.

The wet winter has provided the county’s avocado growers with what promises to be a bumper crop, said Chris Taylor, president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. With the largest crop in more than three years, avocado shippers have added to their payrolls.

“We’ve added plant personnel for packing bins, and picking crews are definitely on the increase,” said Ross Wileman, sales manager for Mission Produce of Oxnard. “Most of our groves are what I call ‘all-weather groves,’ with good access during the rain.”

With the exception of strawberries, most row crops have thrived, although growers have been forced to clear drainage channels and plant crops by hand.

“You have to have a lot of people in the field to keep them clean and strip rotten fruit,” said Jamie Deardorff of Deardorff-Jackson Co. of Oxnard. The company grows more than 500 acres of celery, cauliflower and strawberries.

County Jobs Rate (Monthly) Jan. 1993: 9.0% Source: State Employment Development Dept.