Unemployment rate sees slight improvement

The Yuba-sutter area’s unemployment rate saw a slight improvement in February following the creation of several hundred jobs across all industries.

The area’s unemployment rate was 10.1 percent, which showed a small improvement from January’s rate of 10.3 percent. Still, the latest figure was higher than the year-ago estimate of 8.2 percent in February 2020.

The state and national unemployment rates were 8.4 percent and 6.6 percent in February, respectively.

Yuba County ended February with an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent, ranking it 46 out of California’s 58 counties.

Sutter County had a rate of 10.3 percent, ranking it 49th in the state.

The area saw a total increase of 400 available jobs in February across all industries. The farming industry accounted for

200 of those jobs. Nonfarming industries that saw job creation included leisure and hospitality

(300 jobs) and government (200). The only industry to see job loss was trade, transportation and utilities (300 jobs).

Compared to the same month a year prior, February saw an overall deficit of 4,200 available jobs across all industries. Despite an increase in farming jobs, non-farming industries had 4,500 fewer jobs available to local residents this year compared to the same month in 2020.

Colusa County ended February with an unemployment rate of 15.9 percent, ranking it last in the state — tied with Imperial County for the highest unemployment rate.