More From O.C. Get on Payrolls During October : Labor: As employment grows, county’s jobless rate also edges up slightly to 5.2%.

Continuing a steady growth trend that began 22 months ago, October employment in Orange County was up by 8,100 jobs from the prior October, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

Employment at local businesses hit the highest level since the year-end holiday hiring peak last December, the monthly report shows.

Despite the increase in local payrolls, the jobless rate--which includes people who live in Orange County but were employed elsewhere--rose slightly to 5.2% from 5.1% in September, state labor market analyst Eleanor Jordan said.

However, the increase was so small as to be meaningless, she added.

And economists say the October jobless report--which shows that the estimated number of county residents with jobs has increased in the past month despite the slight bump up in the unemployment rate--is a good one for Orange County.

“Typically in a recovery we have more people entering the labor force as discouraged workers return, so the jobless rate may rise over the short run, but for the longer period, this still points to moderate growth,” said Lisa M. Grobar, a Cal State Long Beach economist who analyzes trends in the five Southland counties.

October’s jobless numbers for Orange County, she said, “are entirely consistent with what we have been seeing for months now.” Employment is up in most categories and even in those where job losses are still the rule, the rate of decline has slowed, Grobar said.

The growth, both month-to-month and year-to-year, has come largely in service sector jobs, including wholesale trade, business services and the tourism and amusement businesses.

“Orange County’s economy is being driven primarily by national economic factors right now, and we expect [employment in the county] to go on increasing slowly until the national economy starts picking up, perhaps early next year,” said Anil Puri, head of the Cal State Fullerton economics department.

Hopes are higher at Chapman University in Orange, where economists are putting the finishing touches on a widely followed annual Orange County economic forecast to be released next month.

“We believe the state is underestimating employment growth in the county,” said Esmael Adibi, director of the university’s Center for Economic Research. “Employment in the state is growing by 2%, and they are showing Orange County growing at only 0.8%.” Adibi said he thinks that figure will grow by 50% or more when the monthly figures are updated and adjusted for seasonal factors early next year.

That, Adibi said, means that if the state ends the year with an estimate of 8,500 new jobs in Orange County, the updated figure is likely to come in around 13,000, with a real growth rate of 1.2%.

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Jobless Rate Holds

Orange County’s October unemployment rate of 5.2% was virtually unchanged from 5.1% in September and 5.1% last October:

Oct. 1994: 5.1%

Oct. 1995: 5.2%

Source: California Employment Development Department