3.9% jobless rate posted in February
Focus now is on next 3 to 6 months, says local analyst
Humboldt County’s unemployment rate in February dipped to 3.9%, according to preliminary numbers provided by the Employment Development Department on Friday.
The county’s January rate stands at a revised 4.1%.
Across California in February, the EDD said the unemployment rate also stands at 3.9% with “29,000 nonfarm jobs as record job expansion continued,” the agency said in a news release.
And while that rate continues the county’s and the state’s trend of historic lows, it’s not representative of the current state of affairs in the local job market where workers are experiencing layoffs.
“I think everybody is look
ing at the next three to six months,” said Randy Weaver, a labor market consultant for the EDD.
Weaver cautioned that March figures might not be an accurate representation of the situation.
“The million-dollar question is what March going to look like,” he said. “(But) March will only be a slight indicator because the survey (used by EDD each month) ends on the 12th of the month. The data may not show the effect of the pandemic.”
He noted that the EDD is “shying away from trends” because it’s hard to figure out an equation with some unknown variables.
“One of the reasons we’re shying away from any trends is because we don’t know the duration … it’s hard to estimate a trend when you don’t know the duration,” Weaver said. “The folks in leisure and hospitality seem to be really impacted. Anybody who is public-facing is going to take a hit from this situation.”
Hundreds of thousands are applying for unemployment benefits across the state, although it’s unclear how many are from Humboldt. That data tends to come in slower, said Barry White, a spokesman for the state agency, who noted the most recent data by county is from November 2019.
White said in an email that an average week in recent months for the EDD has included processing around 41,000 applications for unemployment.
In stark contrast, between March 15 and March 21, EDD processed 186,809 claims — more than 4.5 times the weekly average.
“EDD can confirm that there has been a huge spike in the number of claims coming in from impacted Californians,” White said in an email. “The EDD is applying a variety of strategies to direct as many staff resources as possible to keep up with the increased claim load.”
And Weaver noted one trend that could appear is that while public-facing industries will see effects from the coronavirus pandemic in terms of lost jobs, the number of workers in state government might grow.
“We have a big increase in unemployment claims, so they are looking at adding staff,” he said.
White expanded on the point noting the EDD is working increased hours to deal with the claims and make sure they get addressed quickly.
“During normal circumstances, an Unemployment Insurance (UI) claim takes approximately 21 days from filing to payment for most claims. This includes verifying wages and getting debit cards to new claimants,” White said. “Given the unprecedented increase in UI claims due to COVID-19, we have taken several steps — working around the clock, including Saturdays and Sundays, and redirecting hundreds of staff to process UI claims — to ensure every Californian gets benefits as timely as possible. We do not expect any significant delays at this time.”