O.C.'s 3.5% Jobless Rate Is Its Lowest Since 1990

By PATRICE APODACA and STUART SILVERSTEIN

Dec. 21, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Continuing the trend that has made it the healthiest labor market in Southern California, Orange County saw its unemployment rate fall again in November to 3.5%.

That’s down from 3.8% in October, and the lowest jobless rate in the county since May 1990.

The number of jobs at county businesses, schools and government agencies hit a record 1.196 million last month--up more than 31,000, or 2.7%, from a year earlier.

“It is a very, very good report,” said Esmael Adibi, director of Chapman University’s Center for Economic Research.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” he said, “and it’s confirming what we believe is going to happen: Barring any unanticipated change, we should continue moving along very nicely.”

Statewide, employers added a substantial 29,700 jobs in November, keeping California’s economic recovery chugging along and nudging down the state’s unemployment rate to 6.9% from a revised 7% in October.

Los Angeles County, one of the weak spots in the state’s economic comeback, showed apparent improvement, too, with its jobless rate edging down to 7.6% last month from a revised 7.8% in October.

In Orange County between October and November, jobs were added in government, particularly as schools continued to boost their payrolls to meet the state’s new mandate for smaller primary classes.

Retailers gearing up for the holiday sales season also accounted for some of the new jobs--and added more of them than they did a year before.

Service-related employment scored the biggest increase in the county in November, underscoring the ongoing restructuring of the local economy away from manufacturing.

However, jobs were also added in the county last month in manufacturing, as well as in construction, transportation, utilities and mining.

Eleanor Jordan, county employment analyst for the Employment Development Department, said the actual manufacturing numbers might be even better than those in the report. That’s because any temporary workers hired by manufacturers through employment agencies would have been recorded as service jobs.

The gains in other industries offset lower county employment in the amusement and recreation trade.

That job growth was registered in so many categories “is definitely a plus for Orange County,” said Jordan.

The December unemployment rate for the county might be even lower because of the usual Christmas hiring binge by retailers, Adibi said.

But the rate might show an uptick in January--which isn’t necessarily bad, he said. That’s because many formerly unsuccessful job seekers who had given up on finding employment might be encouraged by the new numbers to resume their searches.

State figures are adjusted to account for seasonal fluctuations, but Orange County figures are not.

The latest statewide figures underscored analysts’ predictions that California--powered by strength in such industries as motion pictures, multimedia and foreign trade--will continue growing faster than the rest of the nation for the foreseeable future.

Statewide, the biggest chunk of the job gains came in retailing, which posted an increase of 11,100 after economists’ seasonal adjustments were taken into account. Gibson said it appeared that because of the shorter-than-usual holiday shopping season this year, retailers did more hiring to handle the extra crush of customers expected at the stores in late November and December.

Also noteworthy was the gain of 1,300 jobs in manufacturing, which has been growing in California despite continuing declines nationally. In particular, aerospace employment--whose abrupt decline pulled California into its deep recession in the early 1990s--has been up modestly seven of the last eight months.

“We can pretty well say it’s turned the corner now, which is certainly good news,” Gibson said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Unemployment Drops

Orange County’s November 3.5% unemployment rate was the lowest for any month since 1990, and significantly lower than Los Angeles County’s 7.2% rate and California’s overall figure of 6.7%. Orange County unemployment trends:

1996 Monthly Rates

Jan. 4.7%

Feb. 4.6

March 4.3

April 4.2

May 4.2

June 4.3

July 4.5

Aug. 4.3

Sept. 4.2

Oct. 3.8

Nov. 3.5