Lake County >> Mirroring California’s figure, the preliminary Lake County unemployment rate for December 2015 increased slightly by a tenth of a percent.
Data released by the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD) on Friday shows that Lake County’s rate of unemployment last month was 7.3 percent, up from November’s 7.2 percent. The total labor force dropped half a percent to 29,960 from 30,110 in November, but increased by 100 people compared to December 2014’s 29,860 figure.
The wholesale trade and federal government sectors experienced the highest growth, both showing a 7.1-percent increase from November. Federal government employment showed the largest gains in jobs for 2015 with a 15.4-percent spike from 2014.
Overall, nearly every industry saw its labor force grow. Exceptions were information, leisure and hospitality as well as jobs categorized as other, which stagnated and saw no change in labor force. The only industry that saw a decrease in its labor force was state government by 5.3 percent.
This marks the third month in a row where the gap between the unemployed and employed has widened in Lake County. The lowest unemployment rate for the year was in September at 6 percent. Since October, however, unemployment has steadily increased from its 6.9 percent.
Debra Mills, EDD manager based out of its Marysville office, says the drop is seasonal, due to the decrease of farm work available during the winter months.
Workers in that industry typically go on unemployment this time of year until more pruning jobs become available around February. Mills expects the unemployment rate to fall, although she said there might be some delay if heavy rains prevail.
Lake County’s unemployment rate continues to be higher than the state and national numbers with California’s at 5.8 percent and the U.S. rate at 5 percent, the EDD reports. That’s a fact Mills said the county will always deal with.
“Lake County typically has one of the highest unemployment rates,” she said. Adding “it’s always been this way.”
Part of this is because it’s a small, rural county with no major industry fueling employment.
“We can’t compete with Silicon Valley, we can’t compete with Sonoma County … and we have a high welfare rate,” Mills said.
Still, she seems positive about the overall outlook of Lake County’s workforce for 2016.
“(The unemployment) rate should be dropping, there are so many positions available right now and coming,” Mills said about employment opportunities stemming from Valley fire recovery and rebuilding projects.
“It’s going to be interesting to see what will happen because of the impact the Valley fire had on the county,” said Kelly Cox, retired Lake County administrative officer of 33 years who is also a trustee for Marymount California University and chairs the Lake County Regional Economic Development Committee.
He said that the Valley fire’s effect is making the unemployment harder to asses.
“I don’t think anybody knows for sure what that impact will be at this time.” Although he added “I think there’s some good things happening, certainly.”
Mills noted hundreds of temporary jobs that will soon become available in multiple sectors, most notably in construction.
Despite this recent month-to-month upward trend in the unemployment rate, the overall numbers show an improvement on a year-to-year basis. The 2015 unemployment rate came out to 7.2 percent, while 2014’s annual average was at 8.9 percent and 2013 at 10.8 percent.
“The rate is still significantly lower than a year ago, and that’s very promising,” Cox said.
And it’s a far cry from the double-digit rates the county faced in recent years during the great recession with the highest annual average in 2010 at 15.3 percent — the largest rate of unemployment in the county in the last 25 years, according online data from the EDD dating back to 1990.
Compared to the rest of California counties’ unemployment rates, Lake County came out at 35 out of 58.
A vast improvement from Lake County’s highest peak, regularly ranking among the worst among California counties.
“Just a couple of years ago we were in the 50s,” Cox said.
