Unemployment Falls in February to 6.8%

Ventura County’s rebounding economy added 5,500 new jobs in February, driving down the county’s unemployment rate to 6.8%.

Just one month earlier, the jobless rate had climbed to 7.6%--part of what analysts called an annual lull after the holiday season. But a report issued Wednesday by the state’s Employment Development Department shows the number of jobs in trade, manufacturing and the service industry increasing.

Those gains, coupled with a sharp upswing in farm employment as strawberries and other crops are in full harvest, brought the rate back down.

Despite the unemployment rate’s fluctuations, the number of jobs in the county grew 2.6% during the proceeding 12 months, with 259,100 people employed during February, compared with February 1995.

Analyst Joe Bonnano with UC Santa Barbara’s Economic Forecast Project said Wednesday’s report shows that the Ventura County job market has fully emerged from the lingering effects of the recession.

“Jobs have more or less recovered in Ventura County,” he said.

Bonnano noted that the employment gains are not confined to any particular industry and even include boosts in some fields, such as manufacturing, that had been shedding positions. The improvements, he said, should continue through the year.

“It’s basically a steady growth forecast for ‘96,” he said.

The county’s service sector continued to lead the local economy in the creation of new jobs. Business services, for example, added 400 new positions in February. Health care, also counted as a service by the state, added 100.

But the single brightest element of February’s job picture was a 25% jump in farm employment. With lemons, strawberries and celery all ready for harvesting, 17,700 people went to work on Ventura County farms last month, up from 14,100 in January.

“If there is a typical cycle, the ebb would be at the end of September through December, and it hits its peak, or comes close to it, now through the summer,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

February’s farm employment figures also showed a 1.1% increase from February 1995, something Laird attributed to the weather. Last winter’s heavy rains delayed the harvest of many crops and caused millions of dollars in damage.

The report also showed a sudden, 1,100-person jump in the number of people employed by local schools. But Charles Weis, the county’s superintendent of schools, said the apparent increase must be a mistake.

Wednesday’s report shows 17,800 people employed by local schools in February, compared to 16,700 in January. Weis said, however, that 17,700 people are listed on the payroll, a number that has changed only slightly since the start of the school year when schools in the county employed 17,300 people.

“Our budget for the school year is set in July, and we don’t add people in February,” he said.

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Ventura County Jobless Rate

February, 1996: 6.8%

Annual Rates:

1995: 7.3%

1994: 7.9%

1993: 8.8%

1992: 8.8%

Source: California Employment Development Department