Lake County jobless rate improves in June
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — While California’s unemployment rate showed a small uptick in June, Lake County’s jobless rate ticked down as the county moved further into its economically critical summer agricultural season.
The California Employment Development Department’s new jobless report for June showed that Lake County’s unemployment rate for last month was 5.5%, down from 5.6% in May and 4.6% in June 2022.
California’s overall unemployment rate was 4.6%, up from 4.5% in May and 3.9% in June 2022.
The number of Californians employed in June was 18,554,300, an increase of 7,900 persons from May’s total of 18,546,400 and up 42,200 from the employment total in June.
At the same time, the number of unemployed Californians was 889,100 in June, an increase of 5,700 over the month and up 143,300 in comparison to June 2022.
Over the past year, California has gained 397,400 nonfarm jobs, which averages out to 33,117 jobs per month. California’s June nonfarm job gain was 5.6 percent of the national job gain of 209,000, the Employment Development Department reported.
On the national level, unemployment in June was 3.6%, in May it was 3.7% and also was 3.6% in June of last year.
In Lake County, total farm jobs were down by 7.4% in June, while total nonfarm jobs rose by 0.6%.
Among Lake County’s job subcategories, the top five for increases in a month-over comparison were information, 12.5%; leisure and hospitality, 6%; transportation, warehousing and utilities, 5.5%; state government, 5%; and nondurable goods, 3.7%.
Decreases from May to June in Lake County occurred in wholesale trade, 15.4%; retail trade, 1.3%; trade, transportation and utilities, 0.7%; and private education and health services, 0.6%.
Lake County’s unemployment rate ranked it No. 38 of California’s 55 counties.
Lake’s neighboring county jobless rates and ranks were: Colusa, 12.2%, No. 57; Glenn, 6.5%, No. 46; Mendocino, 4.6%, No. 23; Napa, 3.5%, No. 4; Sonoma, tied at 3.7%, No. 7; and Yolo, 4.8%, No. 27.
In related data that figures into the state’s unemployment rate, the Employment Development Department said there were 384,841 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the June 2023 sample week. That compares to 391,004 people in May and 296,570 people in June 2022.
Concurrently, 43,455 initial claims were processed in the June 2023 sample week, which was a month-over decrease of 918 claims from May, but a year-over increase of 88,271 claims from June 2022, the report said.
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.