County Unemployment Rate Holds at 8.2% for 2nd Month

Ventura County’s unemployment rate held steady in September for the second month in a row with seasonal adjustments responsible for most of the jobs created and lost.

A report released Friday by the state’s Employment Development Department showed the county’s jobless rate at 8.2% at the end of last month, unchanged from the end of August.

The most significant monthly job gains were in education, where a statewide plan to reduce class size for kindergarten through third grades was partly responsible for the creation of 900 new jobs.

Jobs in the education sector are expected to continue to grow because many jobs created at the beginning of the school year do not usually show up until the October reporting period, said Doug Perron, a labor market analyst with the state jobs office in Santa Barbara.

With September’s unemployment rate lower than the 8.5% rate reported during the same month in 1995, analysts said the area’s economic recovery continues.

“We’re looking better than we were looking last year at this time,” Perron said. “Keeping in mind seasonal variations, the economy is improving.”

The county’s jobless rate, however, remains higher than the statewide average of 6.7% and the national average of 5%, Perron said.

Overall, Ventura County’s economy has added approximately 1,900 new nonfarm jobs since September 1995, Perron said.

Government rolls for the 12-month period showed a net gain of about 900 jobs with about 1,300 new jobs in education being more than enough to offset a loss of 600 federal jobs.

While the closing of a lingerie factory in Santa Paula--where about 200 workers lost their jobs--was largely responsible for a decline in nondurable-manufacturing jobs in the county, overall manufacturing was up with durable-goods manufacturing accounting for 500 new jobs.

That is a good sign, according to Mark Schniepp, director of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project, which tracks the Ventura County economy.

“One of the most surprising employment sectors showing strength has been manufacturing,” Schniepp said. Most of those positions are high-paying jobs and contribute to the area’s overall economy, he added. “We didn’t think the labor market recovery was so strong in those areas. It is pretty healthy right now.”

The retail trade, construction and services sectors also grew during the past 12 months, while payrolls in mining, communications and utilities declined. Employment in high-technology manufacturing remained almost unchanged.

The highly volatile farm sector grew by 700 jobs to 15,900 during the 12 months, Perron said.

When compared to the month of August, construction-related jobs in September were up by 200, while jobs in the food-service sector, wholesale trade, trucking and warehousing were down.

“There is nothing very spectacular,” Schniepp said. “Job growth is slow according to these estimates.”

If the numbers are accurate, Schniepp said, they could be a cause for concern because they would show that the economic recovery is slowing somewhat. But the labor department’s job estimates are usually revised in February or March of the following year, he added.

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Ventura County Jobless Rate

September 1996: 8.2%

*

Annual Rates

1995: 7.45

1994: 7.9%

1993: 8.8%

1992: 8.8%

Source: California Employment Development Department