County Jobless Rate Dips Slightly in March to 6.2%
Ventura County’s economy continued its slow, steady growth in March, adding about 900 jobs that pushed the area’s unemployment rate down to 6.2%
Although the construction, finance, insurance and real estate sectors all experienced job losses last month, the overall employment picture brightened a bit due to a seasonal increase in farm labor, according to a report issued Friday by the state’s Employment Development Department.
In all, the number of jobs in Ventura County rose from 256,700 in March 1995 to 260,000 a year later as service industries grew by 1,100 jobs and government and retail trade each gained 900 jobs.
Despite the increase, the March unemployment rate of 6.2% was the same as the year before, but it was down from 6.8% in February 1996.
“It doesn’t really appear that Ventura County’s having strong growth, but it’s maintaining or holding that same rate of job growth,” said Mark Schniepp, director of UC Santa Barbara’s Economic Forecast Project. “That’s still a good sign.”
After agricultural industries, the segment of the economy experiencing the largest job growth in March was transportation and public utilities. It picked up 400 new jobs since the previous month, raising the county total to 10,800--a 2.9% gain compared to March 1995.
Meanwhile, the county’s construction industry took the hardest hit, losing 500 jobs in March alone, when it employed 10,400 people--a 2.8% drop compared to the year before.
Ventura County’s manufacturing sector, which had been steadily shedding positions, stayed level at 30,800 for the second consecutive month--an increase of 3.4% from the year before. Retail trade employment also remained unchanged at 45,700 in March--a 2% jump from last year.
“The retail sector is doing well in terms of sales, and that looks to be translating into more jobs,” Schniepp said.
Although farm employment was up from February to 19,200 jobs, it was actually down by 800 jobs compared to the year before.
But Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said he thought that March’s numbers had to be higher than last year’s, simply because there was less rain and more harvesting taking place.
“I really question whether that was an accurate reflection, and I don’t mean that as a dig on the EDD,” Laird said. “It’s just not consistent with what I would perceive.
“I think [farm employment] last year had to be less than this March because of the storms,” he said. “This March, the production of strawberries and lemons was more consistent with years past.”
Schniepp noted that last year’s high total of 20,000 for March may have been an anomaly and that this year’s figures are still unusually high.
“A year ago, there was real lousy rainfall, and there was a real heroic effort to salvage the crops,” Schniepp said. “That’s why there was such a high number last year. To have 19,200 farm jobs is nothing to be ashamed of.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Ventura County Jobless Rate
March 1996: 6.2%
*
Annual Rates
1995: 7.3%
1994: 7.9%
1993: 8.8%
1992: 8.8%
Source: California Employment Development Department
