LAKE COUNTY — Unemployment went down more than a percentage point in Lake County to 18.5 percent in April from 19.6 percent in March, according to the Employment Development Department.
Debra Mills, the site manager for Lakeport EDD, said the office is getting busier with more employers looking for workers.
“Things aren”t great, but things are picking up,” Mills said.
She has seen an increase in seasonal employment, which came through in the March and April industry numbers.
Leisure and hospitality companies hired 120 more employees in April, EDD reported. However, because farm jobs cut 130 workers, the unemployment rate didn”t plummet.
Dennis Mullins, of the Labor Market Information Division of EDD, said the county is following historical trends of an increase in leisure and hospitality jobs with a dip in farm jobs in April. He thinks the numbers are a good sign.
“It”s a good indication for Lake County that these types of jobs are coming back,” Mullins said.
Nine industries hired more people or kept the same number of employees while farm and trade, transportation and utilities jobs employed fewer workers, Mullins said.
Lake County unemployment is still up 3.4 percentage points since last year, Mullins said. The comparable, not seasonally-adjusted California rate is 12.3 percent, up 1.7 percentage points over the year. The comparable U.S. rate is 9.5 percent, up 0.9 percentage points since last year.
Only eight other counties out of 58 have higher unemployment than Lake County, Mullins said. Rates for surrounding counties include Colusa with 20.7 percent, Mendocino at 12 percent and Sonoma at 10.6 percent.
Mills said the office gets a lot of discouraged job seekers who have run out of their 99 weeks of unemployment benefit extensions. She said it”s up to Congress to decide whether to offer more extensions.
A lot of people also come to the Lakeport EDD office requesting training, Mills said.
“That”s a good thing, people getting more education,” she said.
Contact Katy Sweeny at kdsweeny@gmail.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
