Unemployment Falls to 4.4%, Lowest Since February 1990

Ventura County’s unemployment rate dipped to 4.4% in April, the lowest figure since the pre-recession month of February 1990.

“This is considered full employment,” said economist Mark Schniepp of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast project. “There is no slack in the local labor market. Any new jobs created will occur as a result of having to essentially migrate in new workers.”

April marked the 10th consecutive month the local unemployment rate has remained steady or fallen. Moreover, April’s figure is a full percentage point lower than 5.5% recorded the same month last year and is a half percent lower than in March, meaning there are an estimated 1,900 fewer people on the jobless rolls than there were a month ago.

But April’s job gains came almost exclusively from the relatively low-paying and transitory agricultural sector, which added 1,300 jobs over March as rains began to ease and fields dried out.

Even though nonfarm employment remained unchanged last month, the local economy has made “impressive gains” in the last year, Schniepp said. Total nonfarm employment has reached 248,500, an increase of 4,700 jobs over the same month last year.

Particularly strong is the manufacturing sector, which has added 1,700 positions since April 1997.

“Manufacturing has now made up all of the jobs lost during the early 1990s downturn and is currently at unprecedented levels,” Schniepp said. “They tend to be higher paying than average, very stable jobs.”

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About 34,000 people work in the manufacturing sector in the county.

Carl Pietsch, a recruiter in the technology department of Ventura-based Kinko’s, doesn’t need statistics to tell him about the tight labor market.

“We’re finding it tough and we’re doing everything we can to entice people to work here,” Pietsch said. “We’re going all over the United States looking for people. We couldn’t find the number of people that we need locally.”

The company now has 30 open positions for software engineers, program analysts and the like, Pietsch said. He also expects to need another 40 workers later this year.

Kinko’s was in the top dozen of Ventura County companies in terms of hiring last year, adding 150 people to its 850-person work force, according to the forecast project’s annual economic outlook.

And the hiring binge shows no signs of abating, despite the tight labor market, Pietsch said.

“It’s getting tighter and tighter and salaries are just going up and up,” he said. “We’re in a major growth period. We’re looking at opening up 1,200 offices by the year 2000 worldwide.”

But it’s not just specialized high-tech personnel that are in demand.

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Liz Sanchez, human resources manager with Simi Valley-based Cardkey Systems, is finding it hard to fill temporary administrative positions. Last year the company grew faster than any other in the county, adding 138 jobs and boosting payroll by more than 130%, Schniepp’s economic forecast reported.

“It’s really difficult,” Sanchez said of her search for clerical personnel from temporary agencies. “They don’t have any people.”

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Ventura County Jobless Rate

April 1998: 4.4%

Source: California Employment Development Department