County’s Unemployment Rate Falls Slightly in March : Jobs: Most of the positions are in agriculture. State reports a dip to 8.4% from 8.9% in February.

County unemployment rates dropped slightly in March, with 5,300 more people joining the work force since February, according to new figures from the state Employment Development Department.

More than half of those jobs are in agricultural positions, however, and state officials and economists cautioned that the upward trend has more to do with seasonal planting and harvesting rather than a reviving economy.

“Agricultural employment usually starts picking up in February and March and continues through May,” said Linda Reed, an analyst with the department. “That’s the pattern historically. The unemployment rate declined last year between February and March as well.”

Bruce DeVine, chief economist with the Southern California Assn. of Governments, said he does not put too much stock in a surge of farm labor. “You’re not going to see a turnaround in the economy through agriculture,” he said.

In fields other than agriculture, 2,000 jobs were added, with unemployment rates dropping from 8.9% in February to 8.4% in March.

Avelina Villalobos, who manages the Oxnard unemployment office, warned that numbers for the seasonal workers are sometimes distorted by hiring practices.

“People pick chilies for two weeks, then they get laid off,” Villalobos said. “Then they get hired on to pick something else a week later, so it looks like two jobs when it’s actually one person going from farm to farm.”

Villalobos suggested that these figures not be taken too seriously. “Those same people will get laid off again in July,” she said.

One apparently improving field, retail--where 500 jobs were added throughout the county in March--should get another boost in coming months with the new outlet mall in Oxnard, Villalobos said. At least 200 new jobs should be created by its opening, scheduled for June.

Economists usually measure unemployment rates against the same time period the year before, rather than against the previous month. But changes in the way the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics gathers unemployment data have made comparisons between past years unreliable, Reed said.

March figures also showed an increase of 500 new jobs in construction, which experts attributed to the Jan. 17 quake. Larry Kennedy, manager of the state unemployment office in Simi Valley, said he has seen an encouraging trend of more construction workers landing jobs over the past year.

Kennedy said he usually compares the state’s figures with the numbers of people coming into the Simi Valley office to file unemployment claims.

“We saw a big drop in the number of claims coming into the office in March, which would correlate with the improvement the state’s figures are showing,” he said. “Things are looking better. It’s gradual, but it’s coming.”