O.C. Unemployment Rate Declines to 4.6%

Orange County’s economic recovery remained on track in February, as nonfarm employers boosted their payrolls by 8,400 and the jobless rate edged down to 4.6% from a revised 4.7% in January, state officials reported Wednesday.

A majority of the month-to-month job increases came in construction and local government, and were attributed to seasonal factors.

More significant, there was healthy hiring in wholesale trade and the services sector, particularly at temporary-help firms and engineering services. And modest gains were also recorded in long-sluggish sectors such as finance and high-technology.

January’s unemployment rate for Orange County was previously pegged at 5.1% but was revised downward after an annual adjustment based on fresher population estimates and other data.

“Everything looks good,” said Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University.

The county’s latest jobless level was the lowest in Southern California. The state’s unemployment rate for February, released last week, held steady at 7.6%, well above the U.S. rate of 5.4%. Unlike the county rate, the state and national figures are seasonally adjusted.

In the first two months of this year, Orange County’s payrolls have grown moderately, at an annual rate of 2.2%--slightly behind the pace of job formation statewide.

Howard Roth, an economist at Bank of America who lives in Orange County, attributed that to the county’s greater reliance on manufacturing and defense, as well as some residual effects from its bankruptcy filing. Still, Roth said he expected Orange County’s job growth to accelerate in the coming months.

“It’s an economy that’s improving,” he said.

Over the last 12 months, the services sector in Orange County has accounted for two-thirds of the nonfarm payroll increases. Leading the way were business services such as computer programming firms and temporary-help agencies.

Gene Wilson, president of Thomas Staffing in Irvine, said demand is particularly strong for temporary clerical and administrative staff. “It’s not booming, but it’s steady and strong,” he said of his own company.

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Other services that expanded included the amusement and movie industry, which added 4,000 jobs over the last year, and the hotel business, up 800 jobs from a year ago.

The county’s construction sector gained momentum last month as payrolls surged by 1,500 from January. Compared with February 1995, employment in the construction industry is up by 2,800, or 3.2%. But for California as a whole, that sector grew by 5.1% over the last year.

There was good news about two other major industries. Manufacturing in Orange County added 200 jobs in February, a modest gain but nonetheless one that provides further signs that the long decline in factory employment might be over.

The finance, insurance and real estate sector also appears to be firming up; those businesses picked up 100 jobs between January and February, as credit unions and commercial real estate companies are beginning to hire again.

The one industry showing a big loss in February was retail trade, which dropped 800 jobs from January. Still, total retail employment, which stood at 205,700 last month, was up 1,700 jobs from February of last year.

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Jobless Trend

Orange County’s February unemployment rate of 4.6% was the lowest for any Southern California county. Orange County nonfarm unemployment trend:

Source: State Employment Development Department