County Jobless Rate Dips to 5.7% for December

Capping a week of robust economic news, state officials said Friday that Ventura County’s unemployment rate dipped to 5.7% in December, the lowest figure for the month in nearly a decade.

The last time the county’s jobless rate plunged so low in December was in 1989, when it was 4.8%, said Dee Johnson, the county’s labor market analyst with the state Employment Development Department.

“The county has recovered well from the depths of the 1992 recession,” Johnson said, noting that the unemployment rate reached a high of 9.4% that December.

The county added 5,300 nonagricultural jobs compared to December 1996, when the overall unemployment rate was 6.4%. Preliminary figures show that the jobless rate also slid a percentage point from November 1997, but Johnson attributed the drop to an increase in seasonal jobs. About 900 new jobs in December were created in retail trade.

But jobs in the relatively high-paying industries of finance, insurance and real estate grew at a whopping 7.6% last year, outpacing the state increase of 0.9%, Johnson said.

“It’s more good news that should affect consumer confidence,” said Ali Akbari, a professor of economics at Cal Lutheran University. “The pattern of the last year shows that the job machine is doing its job--it’s creating jobs.”

Akbari noted that at the beginning of the economic recovery, most of the new jobs were generated in the lower-paying retail trade and service industries. But now, the county is enjoying broad-based growth throughout the labor force.

“There are more higher-paying jobs now,” said Akbari, who is also the director of Cal Lutheran’s Center for Economic Research. “All in all, it’s a better job market, and I’m very optimistic that it will continue.”

The strong unemployment figures follow a report earlier this week that home sales in the county surged nearly 20% in December and home prices leaped nearly 10% over the same period in 1996.

These important economic barometers helped lead analysts to predict Wednesday that 1998 will be even better than last year. In addition, a survey conducted by City National Bank concluded that many county businesses project higher sales and better profit margins for this year.

Ventura County’s job figures closely reflected the state unemployment rate of 5.5% and the Los Angeles County rate of 5.8%. The national jobless rate, meanwhile, continued to dive, coming in at 4.4% in December.

Some economists worry that the economy may be overheating and that too much employment may lead to inflationary pressures, but Akbari doesn’t foresee consumer prices going up.

“I think there will be sustained economic growth and a continuing overall good economy,” he said. “I’m very optimistic and I would expect the good news to continue.”

Ventura County’s jobless rate ranked 20th among California’s 58 counties, Johnson said. San Mateo County led the state with a 2% rate in December.

There were an estimated 262,800 jobs in December in Ventura County. The number of jobs in industries such as manufacturing swelled by 1,600 last year.

The service industry, wholesale trade and transportation and public utilities all showed growth last year as well. The only areas of the job market that showed declines were government and agriculture.

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Ventura County Jobless Rates

December 1997: 5.7%

Source: California Employment Development Department