Mid-Valley jobless numbers show improvement

Unemployment rates for Colusa, Sutter and Yuba counties have been improving each month since February, and local statistics for May are the lowest they’ve been in nine months.

Last month, Sutter County had an unemployment rate of 8 percent, down from 9.7 percent in April. Still, the county ranked 53rd out of the state’s 58 counties in terms of unemployment.

Yuba County also showed improvement at 6.7 percent in May, down from 7.8 percent in April. Yuba County was ranked 47 of 58 counties for the month of May.

Combined, the Yuba-Sutter area had a 7.5 percent unemployment rate in May. The area’s unemployment rate was 8.6 percent for the same month the previous year.

The industry that saw the most growth in Yuba-Sutter was in farming, with an additional 700 positions. The only industries that saw a decrease in employment were in educational and health services, and government, according to the Employment Development Department.

Colusa County still ranked second to last in the state for unemployment in May – the worst being Imperial County. However, it saw the biggest improvement from the previous month of the three counties.

Colusa County had an unemployment rate of 12.4 percent in May, down from 16.2 percent in April.

California’s May unemployment rate was 4.2 percent, and the nation’s was 4.1 percent.