LAKE COUNTY ? Lake County employment increased by 190 jobs between January and February, shaving the unemployment rate by 0.5 percentage points to 19.3 percent from 19.8 percent in January, the Employment Development Department reported.
Dennis Mullins, of the Labor Market Information Division of EDD, said the data suggests the economy may have reached its low point and it will continue to improve.
“To see employment rise in February, so early in the year, is encouraging,” Mullins said. “We could see the trend continue with month-over-month job increases.”
Lake County is following the state, inching unemployment downward from January to February, Mullins said.
Mullins said because Lake County employment is seasonal by nature, the county is coming out of the winter with more jobs in farming, leisure and hospitality, professional and business services and government. Four other industry sectors kept the same number of employees including, mining, logging and construction, information, financial activities and other services. Nine counties had higher unemployment than Lake County in February, with Colusa ranking the highest at 27.6 percent and Mono the lowest at 7.8 percent, EDD reported. Mendocino County had 12.5 percent unemployment in February and Sonoma County had 11 percent.
Mullins said in general, the job increases are showing an upswing in the economy.
“Lake County is still down about 700 jobs over the year, but the job loss rate isn”t as drastic as it was,” he said.
