Area Jobless Rate Drops Slightly

Ventura County’s unemployment rate dipped slightly but continued to hover near 6% in August, a reflection of what analysts say is the traditional summer lull in the job market.

The jobless rate for August was 5.7%, compared with 6% in July, the highest monthly rate in more than two years, the state reported Friday. Of the 3,500 jobs lost from July to August, more than half were in the farm sector.

“In our county, this is layoff time for agriculture,” said Dee Johnson, analyst for the state Employment Development Department.

While the number of jobs is growing overall, the rate of growth is slowing down, she said.

Evidence of that is in the nonfarm job statistics, which posted only a 2% increase over last August, according to the new report. In previous months this year, the growth rate was up to 4.5%.

But Mark Schniepp, director of the California Economic Forecast Project, said the drop probably has more to do with the high cost and scant availability of housing than with a plunge in the area’s economy.

“There are not many people to be hired in a full-employment economy,” he said. “And with housing being such a difficult issue--not much inventory and high rates--it’s been difficult to bring people in.”

The cost of a typical apartment in Ventura County now averages $1,035--up 10.5% from the same period last year, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

“A lot of people are getting concerned, especially in the technology sector, that housing prices are so high you can’t recruit [and that] you lose people to more affordable areas,” Kyser said. “It’s definitely a challenge for government and business leaders all around the state.”

Kay Wilson-Bolton, president of the Ventura County Coastal Assn. of Realtors, said housing affordability has been at record lows in recent months and is only starting to creep up.

“Any time you have high housing costs, you limit the employee pool,” she said. “It’s a longtime problem.”

About 387,100 people were employed in Ventura County last month and 23,600 were jobless, according to the state figures. Behind agriculture, the largest decline for the month was seen in local education, which lost 2,000 jobs, a dip seen each summer.

The county’s unemployment rate one year ago was slightly lower at 5.3%, but the difference is insignificant, analysts said.

“What’s important is there are more jobs in all the sectors than there were a year ago,” Johnson said.

Over the year the county gained 6,000 jobs in all industries. The largest increases were in the business services sector, which grew by 1,500 jobs, and in trade, which posted an increase of 1,300 jobs since August 1999. The farm sector, meanwhile, added 800 jobs.

Construction added 800 jobs, registering a 5.2% growth rate for the year. Other year-to-year gains were posted in the manufacturing sector, government, transportation and public utilities.

“The economy is quite healthy, and the slowdown we are seeing has been welcomed,” Schniepp said.

Ventura County’s jobless rate for August is higher than the statewide average of 5% and the national rate of 4.1%, and is 29th among the state’s 58 counties.