County unemployment dropped more than 4 points in August

EL CENTRO – Imperial County gained only 200 jobs in August but lost 2,500 workers, leading to a more than fourpoint improvement in its unemployment rate, according to estimates released by the state Economic Development Department on Friday.

Preliminary estimates put the local unemployment rate for August at 22.9 percent. That compares to 11.4 percent across the state and 8.4 percent nationwide. Also, the county’s rate was within a percentage point (0.9) of the number it registered for August 2019.

However, there were approximately 3,100 more workers a year ago and about 3,200 more jobs.

The loss of 1,000 Imperial County farm jobs in August was offset by the addition of 1,200 non-farm jobs.

The biggest gains in the latter category were the government sector, with 1,100 jobs added in local government and 200 in federal agencies. Retail saw the biggest drop locally in the non-farm sector with roughly 400 jobs lost.

While Imperial County narrowed its gap in unemployment rate with the rest of the state, it still had far and away the highest rate among the 58 counties. Los Angeles was next at 16.6 percent, followed by Tulare and

Kern counties at 13.1 percent each.

The lowest unemployment rate statewide was found in Lassen County at 6.7 percent. However, that county’s estimated labor force was only 8,970, compared to 69,200 in Imperial County.

The EDD said August’s statewide unemployment rate of 11.4 percent marked the first month since March the rate was lower than the 12.3 percent mark set during the height of the Great Recession (March, October and November 2010).

The month-over decrease in California’s unemployment rate (minus 2.1 percentage points) was larger than that of the nation as a whole (minus 1.8 percentage points).

Six of California’s 11 industry sectors gained jobs last month. Government (plus 66,100) had the largest job gain due to federal temporary hiring for the 2020 Census and growth in local government education. Trade, transportation and utilities’ increase (plus 26,000) was buoyed by transportation and warehousing, and general merchandise stores.

EDD said leisure and hospitality posted the largest industry job loss in August (minus 14,600), and 561,900 of the sector’s 633,000 year-over job losses have occurred since March 2020.