County’s Unemployment Rate Climbs to 9.3% in July

Ventura County’s unemployment rate climbed a full 2 percentage points from June to July, hitting 9.3%, the highest it has been since January, according to state figures released Friday.

The increase was attributable to two predictable seasonal changes, a drop in agricultural production and the school system’s summer break, said officials with the state Employment Development Department.

“It is not unusual that the rate increased from June to July,” said Linda Reed, an analyst with the department. “The declines in government were expected because the schools are on furlough and as different crops come and go, so do the workers.”

In July, 1993, the county’s unemployment rate reached a three-year peak of 10.7%.

“Typically, July is the month of the highest unemployment rate,” said Joe Bonanno with the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecasting Project.

Factoring in the fluctuation in agriculture and the temporarily out-of-work school employees, Bonanno said the two-point increase was not significant.

“There really isn’t a change,” Bonanno said. “It’s still not growing. But if we were sailing it would be calm seas.”

Statewide, the unemployment rate for July also stood at 9.3%, while the rate nationwide was a considerably lower 6.2%.

In Ventura County, with the close of the strawberry harvesting and processing season in July, 6,300 farm workers lost their jobs, dropping the number of agricultural workers in the county to 15,300.

Locally, schools employed 1,400 fewer people during July. But Reed said that loss was misleading, because those jobs will be regained by September.

Despite the jump in the unemployment rate, Bruce DeVine, chief economist with the Southern California Assn. of Governments, said he was not disturbed by the change.

“I don’t think it is any cause for alarm really,” he said. “It’s a seasonal loss. When you look at these figures you have to take into account the special features that affect the county.”

In addition to the agricultural losses, the manufacturing sector lost 300 jobs and the service sector, including health and business, declined by 400 jobs.

Small gains were reported in several areas from June to July; 200 more jobs in retail trades, 100 in insurance, 100 in finance, 100 in real estate and 100 in wholesale trade.

Construction also added 100 jobs since June. That industry has grown by 600 jobs since July, 1993, which economists said is very likely a result of rebuilding from damage caused by the Jan. 17 earthquake.

Larry Kennedy, manager of the unemployment office in Simi Valley, said the western part of the county had incurred more than the east county in job losses during July.

“Job orders actually improved for us,” Kennedy said. “We had 269 job orders in the system as of Aug. 12. Two years ago we would have maybe had 100 on hand.”

Unemployment claims also dropped off in his office, he said. In June, the office reported 1,636 new claims, or people who had just signed up for unemployment, and in July that number declined to 1,568.