County Economic Growth Posts Gains in February

Ventura County’s economic growth continued unabated in February as unemployment dropped to 6.2%, buoyed by a surge in farm jobs and a steady increase in teachers needed for smaller classes, according to state figures released Friday.

“To see this report as strong as it is is further evidence the local economy continues to be prosperous,” said Mark Schniepp, director of UC Santa Barbara’s Economic Forecast Project. “There’s no false signals, and we have not much to worry about when it comes to the economy for Ventura County.”

The preliminary state Economic Development Department figures mean that 4,300 more jobs were created in the county in February than the previous month, said Carla Barnes, an EDD employment analyst. The county’s unemployment rate stood at 7% last month and 6.9% in February 1996.

The county statistics also closely followed a statewide trend that saw California’s unemployment rate drop to 6.5%, registering the biggest single monthly decline in a decade. Joblessness in the state is at its lowest level since October 1990.

Ventura County’s figures were boosted by an increase of 3,600 farm jobs over the previous months and 600 more government jobs, many of them produced as school districts continued hiring teachers to reduce classroom sizes, Barnes said.

“We’ve hired over 103 new teachers this school year,” said Sandra Herrera, assistant superintendent at the Oxnard School District, which--with 14,300 students--is the county’s largest elementary school district. “Of that 103, 45 of them are directly as a result of the classroom-reduction size program the state implemented this year.”

A combination of January rains delaying the harvest of some crops and February’s dry and warm weather accelerating strawberry production produced the jump in agricultural jobs, said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

“Those things act as accelerators of the normal trend,” he said. “I’m not surprised there’s a 28% increase in the number of people employed” in agriculture.

Jobs in the trade sector declined by 200 as holiday sales ended and by 200 in manufacturing. But those losses were offset by a gain of 5,600 jobs in the services sector.

Overall, nonfarm employment, traditionally considered one of the best measures of the county’s economic vitality, gained 700 new positions last month. That means that jobs are being created at a brisk 2.7% so far this year, Schniepp noted.

“It’s very unspectacular--really kind of boring, very mundane--but it’s verifying that the economy is maintaining a rate of growth that is healthy for the county,” he said.

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Ventura County Jobless Rate

February 1997: 6.2%

Annual Rates

1997: 6.6%

1996: 7.1%

1995: 7.5%

1994: 7.8%

Source: California Employment Development Department