Los Angeles County - News from April 3, 1995

March Jobless Figures Due: New unemployment statistics due out Friday should help analysts determine whether the dazzling improvement reported for February in the Los Angeles County and California job markets was for real or illusory. The last batch of monthly unemployment figures showed California’s jobless rate falling to a four-year low of 7.3% in February, from 8.2% the month before, while the county’s rate dropped a full percentage point to 7.9%. Moreover, statewide, employers added a record 82,500 workers to their payrolls. But UCLA researchers recently lowered their growth forecasts for the state’s economy. Will Los Angeles and California hold on to those gains when the March figures are released? Or were the apparent gains simply a recovery from a miserable January, when the job market was dampened by winter rains? Stay tuned.