- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
March sees slight improvement in Lake County jobless picture; state rate remains unchanged
The California Employment Development Department’s latest report on joblessness showed that Lake County’s March unemployment rate was 6.3%, down from 6.4% in February but up from the rate reported in March 2022, 5.2%.
At the same time, the statewide rate remained at 4.4%, compared to 4.5% in March 2022.
Despite there being no change in the state rate, the Employment Development Department said the state’s employers added 8,700 nonfarm payroll jobs in March.
California payroll jobs totaled 19,371,100 in March 2023, up 32,700 from February 2023 and up 151,200 from March of last year, the report said.
The Employment Development Department said that since the current economic expansion began in April 2020, California has gained 3,049,800 jobs, which works out to a monthly average of 84,717 jobs gained over that time.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nationwide unemployment rate in March was 3.5%, down from 3.6% in February, which was the same rate in March of 2022.
Lake County trends
With the weather turning warmer and crops growing, Lake County’s workforce showed an increase of 22.7% in total farm jobs — which equates to 200 jobs — which also is a 13.7% year-over increase, a trend also seen statewide.
For total nonfarm jobs, there was a 0.4% increase in March over February, but it was down by 1.7% in a year-over comparison.
Employment subcategories showing gains included financial activities, 3.3%; government, 2.1%; personal and professional services, 1.4%; and private education and health services, 0.4%.
Losses were reported in other services, -1.9%; leisure and hospitality, -1.7%; goods producing, -0.9%; and trade, transportation and utilities, -0.3%.
Lake County’s unemployment rate last month earned it the No. 35 ranking statewide among the state’s 58 counties.
San Mateo had California’s lowest unemployment rate, 1.9%. On the other end of the spectrum, Colusa County had the highest, 19.2%.
In addition to Colusa, Lake’s other neighboring county jobless rates and ranks were: Glenn, 7.1%, No. 43; Mendocino, 5.3%, No. 27; Napa and Sonoma, tied at 3.6%, No. 7; and Yolo, 5.1%, No. 26.
Statewide picture
The report showed that the number of jobs in the agriculture industry statewide increased from February by 10,500 to a total of 434,900 jobs in March.
The agricultural industry had 17,000 more farm jobs in March 2023 than it did in March a year ago, the Employment Development Department said.
The report showed that the number of Californians employed in March was 18,511,400, an increase of 14,700 persons from February’s total of 18,496,700 and also up 128,600 from the employment total in March.
At the same time, the report showed the number of unemployed Californians was 859,600 in March, an increase of 17,900 over the month and also up 22,500 in comparison to March 2022.
Total nonfarm jobs in California’s 11 major industries totaled 17,967,800 in March — a net gain of 8,700 from February. This followed a downward revised (-10,500) month-over gain of 21,800 jobs in February, the report said.
In a year-over comparison, total nonfarm jobs increased by 432,100 — a 2.5% increase — from March 2022 to March 2023 compared to the U.S. annual gain of 4,145,000 jobs, a 2.7% increase.
Six of California’s 11 industry sectors gained jobs in March with private education and health services (+7,000) leading the way with notable gains in offices of dentists, home health care services and hospitals, the Employment Development Department said.
Government (+6,900) enjoyed the second-strongest month-over gain as jobs were added in all three of its sub sectors with the strongest gains coming in local government education, according to the report.
Construction, which lost 8,200 jobs, suffered the largest reduction in month-over employment with much of its losses coming in the specialty trade contractors and construction of buildings subsectors, the report said.
The state said additional losses came in the highway, street, and bridge construction and residential building construction, among others.
Extreme weather and flooding likely played a role in the sector’s month-over decline as atmospheric rivers hit California during the survey week, the Employment Development Department said.
In related data that figures into the state’s unemployment rate, the Employment Development Department said there were 414,119 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the March 2023 sample week. That compares to 380,768 people in February and 398,638 people in March 2022.
Concurrently, the agency reported that 46,792 initial claims were processed in the March 2023 sample week, which was a month-over increase of 6,209 claims from February and also a year-over increase of 7,607 claims from March 2022.
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