California Job Market Rises by 30,200
Providing hope that much of California is shaking off its economic lull, officials reported Friday that the state gained 30,200 jobs in January, the biggest monthly increase in a year.
The news in the jobs report wasn’t all upbeat. The state also reported that the unemployment rate climbed to 6.2% in January, up from 6.1% the previous two months, reaching its highest level in more than four years. By contrast, the national jobless rate fell to 5.6% last month from 5.8% in December.
Still, analysts said the California unemployment figure was pushed up not by layoffs but by an influx of new job hunters who had dropped off the state’s radar screen--a phenomenon that often signals the beginning of recovery.
“At the first sign that more jobs are available, people rush back into the work force and start looking,” said Brad Williams, senior economist for the California legislative analyst’s office. “That’s not uncommon at a turning point.”
Friday’s figures, which also included a reassessment of last year’s economic performance, showed that December’s job market was better than previously reported, with California picking up 10,900 jobs. Earlier, officials reported that the state lost 600 jobs in December, following losses in each of the three previous months.
January’s job gains were spread across a variety of industries, including services, retailing, construction, government and nondurable goods manufacturing. Analysts said the net job growth points to the resilience of the California economy and provides more evidence that the downturn may be short-lived.
“This is just tremendous,” said Howard L. Roth, chief economist for the California Department of Finance. “You’d be hard-pressed to say this to an economy in recession.”
In Los Angeles County, unemployment remained at 6.3% for a second consecutive month, while Orange and San Diego counties continue to post some of the lowest figures in the state. The figures show that Orange County’s jobless rate was 3.8% in January, up from 3.2% in December, while San Diego’s rose to 3.9% last month from 3.3% in December.
The rise in the jobless level was widespread, with 57 of California’s 58 counties reporting increases in their rates. Still, the Bay Area continues to be the state’s weakest region. In Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, unemployment was virtually nonexistent a year ago, registering 1.7% in January 2001. Last month, Santa Clara’s jobless rate hit 7.5%, up from 6.3% in December.
San Francisco has suffered a similar spike in unemployment. Last month, San Francisco’s jobless rate hit 7%, up from 5.9% in December and 3.3% in January 2001.
Michael S. Bernick, director of the California Employment Development Department, blames the double whammy of the dot-com bust and a dramatic falloff in travel after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“San Francisco has taken two big hits,” Bernick said. “They continue to struggle.”
Largely because of the relative strength of the overall Southern California economy--particularly in the counties surrounding Los Angeles--the state has lost less momentum than the rest of the country since the U.S. recession began in March.
In fact, Roth said it is debatable whether California actually ever fell into recession. Although there is no formal definition of a state recession, it normally is a period of six months of continuing job losses.
Roth’s upbeat outlook stemmed in part from an another report released Friday, an annual reassessment of employment figures known as “benchmarking.” The new figures showed that California did not lose jobs in back-to-back quarters, as had been thought, and that the state overall lost fewer jobs than previous calculations. The official job loss figure for 2001 stands at 26,100, versus the previously reported decline of 38,100.
The last time California’s jobless rate matched last month’s level was in October 1997, when it also was 6.2%. The last time the state gained more jobs in a single month was in January 2001, when 44,300 positions were added.
Among Latinos, the jobless rate last month was 7.3%, up from 7.1% in December and 6.5% a year earlier. For blacks, joblessness was 8.6%, up from 8.5% in December and 7.6% in January 2001. Among whites, unemployment was 5.3% last month, up from 5.1% in December and 4.8% a year earlier.
The statewide employment figures, and the numbers for Los Angeles County, are adjusted for seasonal trends such as the typical January layoff of workers hired for the holiday season. The figures for other counties are not adjusted, in part because of the small sampling of households on which those estimates are based.
Without the seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate for California in January would be 6.7%, up from 5.8% in December and 5.2% in January 2001. Likewise, the unadjusted rate for Los Angeles County would be 6.6% for last month, up from 5.9% in December and from 5.3% in January 2001.
Among other Southern California counties, whose rates are not adjusted for seasonal trends, the jobless rates were:
* Riverside, 5.6% last month, up from 5.0% in December and 4.9% a year earlier;
* San Bernardino, 5.3% last month, up from 4.5% in December and 4.7% a year earlier;
* Ventura, 5.4% last month, up from 5.0% in December and 4.6% a year earlier.
