Revised Figures Show Brighter Job Picture for State : Employment: Los Angeles County generated more than one-third of California’s 148,200 new positions in 1994.

Underscoring the growing sense that the economic recoveries in California and Los Angeles County have packed more punch than initially believed, officials on Friday unveiled revised employment figures showing an improved job picture for 1994.

The state enjoyed a modest but welcome gain of as many as 148,200 jobs last year. The previous official numbers--based on a relatively small sampling--portrayed California’s job total as virtually unchanged.

For long-struggling Los Angeles County--generally believed to be the state’s laggard--the news was yet more upbeat. The new data showed the county garnered more than one-third of the state’s rise in employment, chalking up an estimated increase of 54,700 jobs between January, 1994, and January, 1995. Although precise comparisons aren’t available, one previous measure showed the county actually losing 28,200 jobs in 1994.

Another 20,600 jobs were added in Orange County over the year, a figure that--if it withstands possible revisions--also would be a big improvement from the previously reported trend.

By any yardstick, the recovery comes nowhere near reversing the state’s economic trauma from mid-1990 through the spring of 1993, when more than 500,000 jobs were lost. At the same time, the latest figures suggest the recovery last year breathed more life into the job market than previously recognized.

The report released Friday by the California Employment Development Department, derived from an annual revision of labor statistics, “confirms that the California economy has been recovering,” said Ted Gibson, economist for the State Department of Finance.

Tom Lieser, associate director of the UCLA Business Forecasting Project, said he was particularly encouraged by the job gain for Los Angeles County.

“It had been generally accepted that Los Angeles was hit harder by the recession and was coming out of it more slowly than the rest of the state. A preliminary review of these new numbers suggests we’re doing at least as well as the rest of the state now,” he said.

Compared to past years, however, the 1994 job gains were skimpy. During the 1980s, California added jobs at a rate of 250,000 to 300,000 a year.

Moreover, another set of figures released Friday suggested that the state’s job gain may have been only 116,500 between January, 1994, and January, 1995. Analysts generally placed less weight on those figures, however, saying they may have been skewed by faulty seasonal adjustments.

In any case, the revised figures not only were a turnaround from the previous flat numbers for 1994, but they also suggested that the job market hit bottom in April, 1993--about a half-year earlier than previously believed. Consequently, instead of losing 143,200 non-farm jobs in 1993, the new figures show the state’s job market as flat in 1993, before gaining momentum in 1994.

The revised job totals were drawn from an annual statistical procedure known as “benchmarking.” It involves the use of information drawn from payroll tax filings from nearly all working Californians to hone initial estimates that were based on a comparatively small sampling of the population.

* SLOWER GROWTH

Data point to slowing economy. D2

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

On the Rebound

Total California non-farm employment for January of each year, in millions of jobs:

1995: 12.03

Source: California Employment Development Department