County’s Jobless Rate Drops to 4.4%

As the U.S. employment picture worsened in April, Ventura County continued its steady march toward full economic recovery, registering its lowest jobless rate since the recession hit last June and its highest employment level in history.

Unemployment nationwide surged three-tenths of a percent last month to 6%, a near eight-year high.

But the county’s rate of joblessness fell from 4.7% in March to 4.4% last month, mostly due to a jump in agricultural employment from the strawberry harvest.

That compares to a peak of 5.5% in January, which was the highest since 1999. California’s jobless rate was 6.3% in April.

“We have our own little economic miracle happening right here in Ventura County,” said Bill Watkins, director of the Economic Forecast Project at UC Santa Barbara. “I have to believe Ventura County’s economy is one of the most dynamic in the country.”

Watkins cited a new study by Forbes Magazine/Milken Institute that rated Ventura County as having the fourth best economic climate for business in America.

The county ranked 18th the previous year out of 200 metropolitan areas surveyed.

The rankings were based on wage and salary growth, high-tech production and growth, first-quarter employment and “job momentum” as gauges of how quickly a local economy has recovered from the recession.

Ventura County ranked particularly high in recent salary gains and a five-year surge in development of high-tech businesses.

Ventura County “has experienced blistering growth in tech,” Forbes reports, partly because of the expansion of two giant firms, Amgen and WellPoint Health Networks.

Six of the 10 top locations as “Best Places for Business and Careers” were in California. The top three were San Diego, Santa Rosa and Las Vegas.

The downside of Ventura County’s fast-firing economic engine is a steady increase in traffic and increased crowding in households due to a sharp escalation in home prices, Watkins said.

Besides suggesting the overall strength of a balanced economy, the April job figures showed that Ventura County had rebounded almost completely from a slowdown that brought two straight months of job losses early this year.

Last month, 18,800 workers had no jobs, 1,100 fewer than the month before and 4,500 fewer than in January.

The month’s 4.4% rate compares with 3.3% in April 2001, when the jobless rate was the lowest in decades.

But that is a reflection of an expanding work force, not fewer jobs in the county.

In fact, total local jobs rose 3,100 last month from March and were up 1,500 from the previous April. There were 307,500 positions, a record high. And the number of county workers employed here and in other counties rose to 405,300, the second highest in history.

Ventura County’s unemployment rate was 10th best of 58 counties in the state, and on par with Southern California, which has weathered the recession far better than the Bay Area.

San Luis Obispo County, which ranked seventh on the Forbes list, had the state’s lowest jobless rate, 2.9%. Orange and San Diego counties had rates of 3.7% and 3.8% respectively. Los Angeles County had a 6.5% rate.

“Obviously, this region is doing much better than the state,” Watkins said.

The local economy is riding out the downturn better than the state and nation because heavy manufacturing and Internet businesses, the nation’s weakest sectors, are not dominant here.

Other large employers include the Navy, education, a variety of service industries and a surging farm economy.

Indeed, the biggest job gains last month were apparently fueled by a continuing strawberry harvest, which began in February.

Farm-related employment increased by 2,900 in a month after a 3,900 job increase the previous two months. Farms employed 800 more workers in April than in the same month last year.

Nonfarm employment increased by just 200 jobs during the month and by 700 jobs during the last year. Construction jobs were flat for the month and off by 900 in a year.

The manufacturing sector, hit hardest by the short recession, was down 100 jobs in a month but were up 100 since April 2001.

The largest year-to-year gain was in government employment, which was up 1,400 jobs in a year.

The second-largest increase from last year was in the finance, insurance and real estate sectors, which expanded by 700 jobs.

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*--* Ventura County Unemployment April 1990-2002 Year Jobless workers Jobless rates 2002 18,800 4.40% 2001 13,900 3.30% 2000 14,900 3.60% 1999 15,800 4.00% 1998 17,200 4.50% 1997 20,900 5.50% 1996 22,800 6.10% 1995 23,800 6.20% 1994 26,500 6.90% 1993 26,100 7.00% 1992 25,200 6.90% 1991 21,600 6.00% 1990 15,100 4.10% Source: State Employment Development Department

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