- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Lake County unemployment rises in January; state rate unchanged
The Employment Development Department said Lake County’s January jobless rate was 6.7%, up from 5.8% in December. The January 2021 rate was 9.5%.
At the same time, California’s January jobless rate remained at 5.8%, unchanged from December.
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said the nationwide unemployment rate for January was 4%, up from 3.9% in December. The January 2021 rate was 6.4%.
In Lake County, unemployment has typically trended higher in the early months of the year, after the holidays.
The number of Lake County unemployed residents rose from 1,600 in December to 1,890 in January.
Employment sectors showing increases in January in Lake County were led by total farm jobs, a category which was up by 32%. Showing slight increases were professional and business services, 1.5%; leisure and hospitality, 0.9%; local government, 0.3%; and educational and health services, 0.2%.
All other sectors either lost jobs or had no change. Largest percentage losses were reported in state government and wholesale trade, both down by 10%.
For January, Lake County had a statewide employment rank of 41 out of 58 counties.
Marin continued to have the lowest jobless rate, with 3.1%, while the highest unemployment once again was reported in Imperial County, 15.6%.
Lake’s neighboring county jobless rates and ranks were: Colusa, 14.8%, No. 57; Glenn, 6.5%, No. 39; Mendocino, 5.1%, No. 22; Napa, 4.5%, No. 12; Sonoma, 4%, No. 7; and Yolo, 4.9%, No. 21.
Details on the state’s jobless situation
Statewide, the Employment Development Department said employers added 53,600 nonfarm payroll jobs, with payroll jobs totaling 17,194,100.
The number of Californians employed in January was 17,960,200, an increase of 109,200 persons from December’s total of 17,851,000, and up 939,700 from the employment total in January 2021, the report said.
The report said the number of unemployed Californians was 1,104,300 in January, an increase of 9,200 over the month, but down 533,100 in comparison to January 2021.
The Employment Development Department said the agency said updated data shows that California outpaced the rest of the nation in year-over job gains — from January 2021 to January 2022 — with the state posting a 7.4% increase in jobs compared to the national job increase of 4.6% for the same time period.
The benchmarked data shows the state’s job recovery so far is much stronger than first estimated, now regaining 2,261,100 — or approximately 82% — of the 2,758,900 jobs lost in March and April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The state said the revised data also shows the peak unemployment rate during the pandemic was 16.1% in May 2020 instead of the previous estimate of 16% in April 2020.
Eight of California’s 11 industry sectors gained jobs in January with Trade, transportation, and utilities (+26,600) posting the largest gain, primarily within the general freight trucking industry subsector.
Both the trade, transportation and utilities, and professional and business services industry sectors have regained all job losses incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also noted that the biggest industry sector job losses were in government (-800); more specifically in local government education.
In related data that figures into the state’s unemployment rate, the Employment Development Department said there were 412,738 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the January 2022 sample week. That compares to 355,749 people in December and 818,589 people in January 2021.
Concurrently, the agency said 54,399 initial claims were processed in the January 2022 sample week, which was a month-over increase of 5,328 claims from December, but a year-over decrease of 3,978 claims from January 2021.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.