County Unemployment Rate Continues to Slide
New year, same vigorous economic story.
Ventura County’s unemployment rate began 1998 by continuing the trend with which it ended 1997, sliding to 6.3% in January.
The rate, down from 7.1% the year before, is the lowest figure for January in Ventura County since 1990, according to the state’s Employment Development Department.
The trend mirrors figures for the state as a whole: California’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.9% in January, falling below 6% for the first time since 1990.
“This robust economy is going on without any [economic] El Nino on the horizon to jeopardize this nice growth,” said Ali Akbari, an economist at the Center for Economic Research at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. “Everything seems so good, so rosy. Even if you want to criticize--if you are paid to criticize--you can rarely find something.”
Nonfarm employment in the county rose 4.7% compared with the previous January, to 246,600 jobs. Construction added 600 positions and retailers 1,200 jobs over the year. Government payrolls also rose by 600 jobs.
Farm employment did even better, rising 21.7% in January compared with the same month the previous year, an increase caused by drier field conditions than in the relatively soggy January 1997.
Comparing figures for January 1997 with the same month the previous year--which analysts consider a more reliable indicator than month-to-month comparisons--shows that industries producing goods in Ventura County, including manufacturing, gained 2,600 jobs.
Half of that increase was due to growth in industrial machinery manufacturing, which added 1,300 positions in the last year.
Haas Automation Inc., which moved from Chatsworth to a 420,000-square-foot plant in Oxnard last March, accounted for a significant number of those jobs.
The company, which makes machines manufacturers use to produce goods and is therefore considered an excellent long-term indicator of economic vitality, has hired 287 people in the last year, bringing its total work force to 845, said company Recruiting Coordinator Martha Marquez. There are no signs of a slowdown yet, she said.
“We’re already breaking ground for another building,” Marquez said. “I have over 60 job openings right now.”
“When this economy started to create new jobs, initially it was the service sector that started the momentum,” Akbari said. “That momentum has spilled over to other areas, and now you see manufacturing jobs . . . high-paying jobs, being created.”
Akbari expects the economy to maintain its strength, with increased purchasing power in the area combining with mortgage and inflation rates that are near historic lows to sustain the growth pattern.
Ventura County Jobless Rate
January 1996: 6.3%
