Employment Rises in Education, Realty

Growing numbers of education and real estate jobs kept July sunny for the county employment market despite seasonal declines.

Total wage and salary employment increased by 11,000 jobs over the same period last year, a 4.3% increase. And while the unemployment rate increased to 5.6% last month, reflecting a 3,000-person increase in the jobless rolls since June, it stood well below the July 1997 rate of 7.7%.

The rise in joblessness from last month is due mostly to seasonal changes, including summer farm layoffs, which officials say is typical.

“It’s not a big surprise,” said Mary Riddel, senior economist with the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast project. “It looks like a continued broad economic expansion.”

The education sector registered the largest year-to-year increase, reflecting both rising enrollment and the demand created by class-size reduction in lower grades. There were 4,000 more education jobs last month than in July 1997, according to a preliminary report released Friday by the state Employment Development Department.

Denise Danne, human resources director for the county superintendent’s office, said the hiring will probably continue well into next year.

“There really is a lot of need out there, and the hiring is still taking place,” she said. “We’re swamped.”

Education is not the only area where employment is booming.

Spurred by a hot housing market, the real estate, finance and insurance sectors grew by 1,100 jobs, or 14%, over last year’s figure.

High-tech manufacturing also registered noticeable gains.

Aerospace production added 200 jobs, an 11% increase over the same period last year. Manufacturing related to navigation, measuring and control devices also grew, increasing by 300 jobs, or about 11%, over the July 1997 figure.

“Ventura County is really seeing an expansion in the production of durable goods,” Riddel said. “Those are relatively high-paying jobs.”

The growth in teaching jobs also is linked to expansion in other parts of the job market as new workers bring their families into area schools. According to the county superintendent’s office, total enrollment grew by 2.7%, or 3,500 students, in the 1997-98 school year.

While most schools have hired teachers for coming sessions, some are still scrambling, with an acute shortage in special education departments, Danne said.

“It’s very serious when we are opening classrooms without special education teachers,” she said. “There are schools starting next week that don’t have the teachers they need.”

The growing demand has forced many schools to hire teachers with emergency permits, which are given to teachers who pledge to work toward training required for full credentials.

David Gomez, assistant superintendent for the Oxnard Elementary School District, estimated that one-quarter to one-third of the 60 teachers the district hired this year have emergency credentials.

“For the past few years it has been that way,” he said, adding that about half of the teachers hired in the 1996-97 year had emergency credentials.

Growing demand for elementary school teachers has sparked parallel increases in the teacher education sector.

Cal Lutheran University, which has a relatively small, 250-student credentialing program, hired two full-time faculty members to support a 33% increase in student enrollment last spring, said Carol Bartell, dean of the university’s School of Education.

“The word is out that there’s a need for teachers,” she said. “We’re struggling to staff classes and keep up with the demand.”

But Bartell and other educators insist that the teaching boom has not swept poorly qualified candidates into county schoolrooms.

“What we have to look at is what type of training they have when they come in with emergency credentials,” said Gomez of the Oxnard Elementary School District. “I’ve hired a few teachers on emergency credentials that had experience as instructional aides, which gives them a very good background in running a classroom.”

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Ventura County Jobless Rate

July 1998: 5.6%

Source: California Employment Development Department