State’s jobless rate falls to 10.9%
The January figure marks California’s fifth straight monthly drop in the unemployment rate.
California’s job market is slowly climbing its way out of the ditch.
The percentage of unemployed workers fell in January to 10.9% from a revised 11.2% in December, according to the California Employment Development Department. That’s the first time it has been under 11% in three years, and it marks the fifth straight monthly drop in the jobless rate.
“The trend clearly is positive,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economist with the Smith School of Business at Cal State Channel Islands.
Still, there was some mixed news in the January jobs report. Although a survey of households indicated that the monthly unemployment rate fell, a separate, less volatile survey of employers showed that California suffered a net loss of
5,200 jobs in January.
The EDD and the U.S. Department of Labor use both surveys to calculate different components of the monthly jobs reports. Experts note that the two surveys usually complement each other, but occasionally they show seemingly contradictory results.
Federal jobless figures were also released Friday, covering the month of February. They showed the nation gaining 227,000 jobs last month, in addition to the previously reported 284,000 jobs added nationwide in January.
California officials say the state’s data are a month behind the federal government’s because of delays related to a federal requirement that the state perform an annual recalculation of previous years’ data. The February data for California will be released March 23.
The new state report showed that trade, transportation and utilities posted the biggest California job gains in January, with 14,400 net new positions. The worst performer was information, including television and motion picture production, with 22,900 jobs lost in the year’s first month.
Chapman University economist Esmael Adibi said he was disheartened by the state’s small January job loss “when the nation is doing so well.” The EDD’S latest report, he suggested, “could be an aberration” and probably could be revised upward in the upcoming February report, particularly if there is continued strengthening in the construction and manufacturing industries.
For example, an estimate that the state created 12,000 jobs in December was revised upward to 38,500, according to Friday’s report.
In all, California added 126,100 net jobs over the last 12 months and 322,400 since the beginning of the economic recovery in September 2009, the EDD said. California, however, has a way to go to make up for the estimated 1.3 million jobs that disappeared during the Great Recession of 2007-09.
Though improving, unemployment rates for January remained stubbornly high throughout much of Southern California. The seasonally adjusted rate was 11.8% in Los Angeles County, down from 12% in December. In Orange County, the unadjusted rate climbed to 8% in January from 7.8% in December. In the same period, the unadjusted rate rose to 12.4% from 12.2% in the Inland Empire and to 9.7% from 9.4% in Ventura County.
The state’s short-term job loss in January, combined with revisions to 2010 and 2011 data, creates “confusion” in trying to reconcile California data and the more robust national numbers, said Stephen Levy, chief economist and director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto.
“The strong national growth in both January and February and the strength in high-tech areas supports the finding that the state economy is continuing to recover, with the largest gains in technology and foreign trade and in the urban, coastal areas of the state,” Levy said. “Construction and government continue to be lagging sectors that constrain the pace of recovery.”
But even in construction, things may be looking up. “There’s a lot more listings, at least in my trade,” said Erik Hernandez, a construction manager from Lynwood, who posted his resume online. “So far, I’ve gotten two calls back, but I expect a lot more.”