September’s Unemployment Rate Rises to 9.4% in County : Economy: Weakness in construction, manufacturing and services overshadows growth in agriculture and education.

Ventura County’s unemployment rate inched up to 9.4% in September as job pools shrunk in the construction, manufacturing and service industries, figures released Monday show.

Even though 1,600 agricultural and educational jobs cropped up in September--due to seasonal farming demands and school openings--the lagging economy continued to keep the county’s unemployment rate generally above last year’s.

Compared with September, 1992, 1,000 more Ventura County residents were seeking jobs this fall, bringing the unemployed rolls to 35,900. The jobless rate for the period last year stood at 9.1%.

Labor market analysts blamed the county’s stubbornly high unemployment rate on out-of-county workers, who snatched up many of the local jobs created in September by school openings and agricultural harvests.

Nonetheless, they termed the one-month increase of 0.2% in September’s jobless rate as statistically insignificant.

Regardless of their statistical import, fluctuations in the monthly unemployment rate mean a great deal for the jobless, including 50-year-old Joel Shrater of Thousand Oaks, who was laid off from his technical position at an aerospace firm Friday.

“In the past, he’s been very lucky about finding work, but the economy has never been this bad when he’s been out before,” said Shrater’s wife, Harriet.

With two children in expensive private colleges on the East Coast, the Shraters are “very worried,” she said. “If he doesn’t find work soon, we’ll have to live on what we’ve saved up for the kids’ education.”

Ironically, Harriet Shrater works as a job counselor for the Conejo Youth Employment Service. From that vantage point, she has noticed the number of available positions drop by half in the three years since the recession began.

“Things don’t look that good,” she said glumly.

Other social service workers echo her pessimism.

“I’m not sure what kind of skills you need here in California these days,” said Charlene Einarsson, who works with Catholic Charities. “The people at the top are out of work, so they don’t have the money to hire people for child care or housecleaning. It all starts at the top and trickles down.”

As in the past two months, Ventura County residents found the employment picture gloomier than job hunters elsewhere in the state--except in Los Angeles County, where the unemployment rate was 9.7%.

In California as a whole, the jobless rate inched up to 9.1% in September, but remained lower than Ventura County’s rate. Overall, the U. S. unemployment rate was 6.4%.

Amid all the grim statistics, job placement counselor Gloria King had some good news for a small segment of job-seekers--senior citizens.

From her tiny office inside Thousand Oaks’ Goebel Senior Center, King finds work for residents 55 and older who eagerly sign up for jobs as baby-sitters, receptionists and accountants. In the past few months, King said, more jobs have opened up as employers seem eager to hire mature, experienced help for roughly $6.50 an hour.

To help unemployed residents find part-time work during the holiday season, the state Employment Development Department will hold job fairs at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks and Buenaventura Plaza in Ventura. The Thousand Oaks fair will take place in The Broadway department store’s personnel office from noon to 6 p.m. Monday and Nov. 9, 22 and 23. The Ventura fair will be set up in the plaza’s center court from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Nov. 13, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 14.

The job fair will offer temporary positions for salespeople, cashiers, stock workers, gift wrappers and food-service workers. Applicants should come ready for interviews.