- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Lake County unemployment edges down; state remains at record-low rate
The California Employment Development Department said Lake County’s March unemployment rate was 5.5 percent.
That’s down from a revised 5.7 percent in February and below the year-ago estimate of 6.4 percent, the agency reported.
At the same time, California’s unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3 percent in March – tying the record low set in February in a series dating back to the beginning of 1976 – although the state’s employers lost 7,200 nonfarm payroll jobs, according to the Employment Development Department report, which was based on two surveys.
In March 2017, the state’s unemployment rate was 5.0 percent. The unemployment rate is derived from a federal survey of 5,100 California households.
The report showed that California has also now gained a total of 2,856,200 jobs since the economic expansion began in February 2010.
The U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged in March. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said nationwide unemployment in March was 4.1 percent for the sixth month in a row; at the same time, the nation’s employers added 103,000 nonfarm payroll jobs.
The report showed that nonfarm payroll jobs in California totaled 17,045,800 in March, based on a survey of businesses that is larger and less variable statistically.
The survey of 71,000 California businesses measures jobs in the economy. The year-over change, March 2017 to March 2018, shows an increase of 321,000 jobs, up 1.9 percent.
The federal household survey, done with a smaller sample than the survey of employers, showed an increase in the number of employed Californians over the month and the year.
That survey estimated that the number of Californians holding jobs in March was 18,552,000, an increase of 2,000 from February, and up 290,000 from the employment total in March of last year.
The number of unemployed Californians was 827,000 in March – down by 16,000 over the month, and down by 142,000 compared with March of last year, the report said.
Lake County’s total farm employment category in March was up 1.2 percent from February and total nonfarm rose by 0.1 percent.
The top five total nonfarm subcategories that showed growth in March included state government, 5.9 percent; nondurable goods, 5 percent; mining, logging and construction, 4.3 percent; other services, 3.8 percent; and financial activities, 2.8 percent, according to Employment Development Department data.
Areas where jobs were lost included durable goods, -6.7 percent; leisure and hospitality, -4.2 percent; educational and health services, -1 percent; private service producing, -0.5 percent; and total private, -0.3 percent, the report said.
Lake County’s March unemployment rate earned it a No. 32 rating out of the state’s 58 counties.
The latest report said March unemployment rankings for neighboring counties are as follows: Colusa, 18.9 percent, No. 58; Glenn, 7.5 percent, No. 45; Mendocino, 4.3 percent, No. 25; Napa, 3.2 percent, No. 10; Sonoma, 2.8 percent, No. 5; and Yolo, 4.8 percent, No. 29.
In related data, the EDD reported that there were 403,184 people receiving regular Unemployment Insurance benefits during the March survey week, compared with 396,030 in February and 420,505 in March of last year.
At the same time, the EDD said new claims for Unemployment Insurance were 39,330 in March, compared with 31,291 in February and 42,939 in March of 2017.
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.