Construction, Service Sector Growth Fuels Jobless Drop : Economy: County’s unemployment rate for August stands at 5.5%, down from 5.8% in July. Analysts expect trend to continue.

Despite slight cuts in government jobs, continued growth in the service and construction sectors helped push Ventura County’s unemployment rate down slightly in August.

The local jobless rate stood at 5.5% last month, down from 5.8% in July, according to a report released Friday by the state’s Employment Development Department.

“Overall, the growth rate is very strong,” said EDD labor market analyst Dee Johnson.

“Pretty much all sectors of the economy are doing very well and adding workers.”

The largest employment gains last month were centered in the service sector, which added more than 600 jobs, primarily in business services. The construction industry, which has recorded solid job growth for much of the past several years, added 300 workers.

Transportation and public utilities added another 200 workers, while retail trade, finance and real estate each increased payrolls by about 100.

Not shown in the monthly jobs report was the number of county residents who found work outside the county or who became self-employed contractors. Last month about 1,600 residents found work outside the county, most of them in Los Angeles County.

August’s greatest job cuts occurred in the government sector, which trimmed its payrolls by about 2,200 workers, most of them in education. Analysts attribute that to a seasonal trend, in which local school payrolls are cut during the summer recess.

Those jobs, they said, should rebound next month with the new school year in full operation.

Agriculture, which has lagged in recent months due to seasonal swings in production, continued to lay off workers in August. About 1,300 jobs were cut, but as in the educational sector, analysts believe those numbers will increase soon.

In the more telling year-to-year comparisons, Ventura County has set a blistering job-creation pace of 4.5%, adding more than 11,000 nonfarm jobs between August 1998 and last month.

The service sector has led the way, adding more than 4,500 workers.

The construction industry has created more than 2,700 positions over the past year, followed closely by government, which added 2,600 positions, most in education.

Over the year, wholesale and retail trade added more than 1,100 workers, and manufacturing added about 500 people to its payrolls.

Although economists had predicted a slowing in the local economy this year, the opposite has occurred.

The annual employment growth rate for the county now stands at about 4.1%, eclipsing last year’s rate of 3.8%, when more than 8,500 nonfarm jobs were created.

Overall, there are about 372,000 employed Ventura County residents, up from 363,000 a year ago.

Economists now believe the type of growth the area is experiencing will continue through at least the end of the year.

“It’s all that broad-based [economic] diversity and the location that is propelling this kind of growth in Ventura County,” said Mark Schniepp, director of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project.

“I cannot see any weak spots, and right now I’d have to say the only thing that is going to unravel this is an act of God. It’s going to take something like an earthquake, a meteor or a war to shut this down.”

There is concern, however, that a drastic stock market correction may cool the sentiments of consumers whose loose purse strings have fueled the local expansion.

“That’s it, and I don’t even think that would have much of a lasting effect,” Schniepp said. “All the ingredients are there, and there’s nothing misaligned in either the local, state or national economies that I can see turning this around in any major way.”