LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — With spring’s arrival this year, the unemployment rate in Lake County showed improvement.
The California Employment Development Department’s latest report on joblessness in California showed a positive pattern.
Lake County’s March jobless rate was 6.6%, down from 7.2% in February and 7.4% in January. The March 2023 rate was slightly better, at 6.3%.
For California as a whole, the EDD reported that the state unemployment rate held steady at 5.3% for a second month. Like Lake County, California had a better jobless rate in March of 2023, at 4.7%.
At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nation’s March jobless rate was 3.8%, down from 3.9% in February. The United States has a total unemployment rate of 3.5% in March of 2023.
While Lake County’s jobless rate went down — with 200 fewer people unemployed in March than in February — it showed declines in jobs across nearly every category. Only mining, logging and construction, at 1.2%, and leisure and hospitality, 1.8%, showed growth, while all other categories either declined or stayed flat.
The civilian labor force numbered 29,170 individuals in March, compared to 29,760 in February and 28,880 in March of 2023.
On a statewide level, the EDD said California’s employers added 28,300 nonfarm payroll jobs in March. Despite the mostly weather-related job loss of 6,600 in February — revised down by 3,200 — March continued a job growth trend over the last eight months that totals 205,200 jobs, a monthly average increase of 25,700 jobs.
The EDD said California payroll jobs totaled 17,996,200 in March, up 28,300 from February and up 217,700 from March of last year.
California’s job market expansion is now 47 months long. Since April 2020, California has gained 3,062,700 jobs, or about 65,200 per month on average, the EDD reported.
Seven of California's 11 industry sectors gained jobs in March with private education and health services (+13,600) posting the largest month-over gain for the third month in a row, the EDD said. This was due in part to payroll additions in social assistance, which saw noticeable growth with in-home support service workers.
The state said construction bounced back after a weather-related decrease last month with a gain of 4,600 jobs. The industry is up 33,900 jobs over the year.
Manufacturing dropped 5,300 jobs, experiencing the largest month-over job reduction with losses in sectors including machinery manufacturing and food manufacturing. In Lake County, manufacturing showed no growth in March but was 6.3% up over the year.
The EDD said California’s latest unemployment rate is in line with the 5% average rate over five years leading into the pandemic — during one of the longest economic expansions in state history.
For March, Lake County’s jobless rate earned it a rank of No. 35 out of California’s 58 counties, the same as it had in February.
Lake’s neighboring county jobless rates and ranks were: Colusa, 19.2%, No. 58; Glenn, 7.6%, No. 44; Mendocino, 5.7%, No. 27; Napa and Sonoma counties, tied at 4.2%, No. 8; and Yolo, 5.8%, No. 29.
San Mateo County continues to hold the lowest unemployment rate in California, 3.5%, an improvement over the 3.7% rate reported for February.
In related data that figures into the state’s unemployment rate, there were 446,130 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the March 2024 sample week. That compares to 425,760 people in February and 414,119 people in March 2023.
The EDD said a total of 41,000 initial claims for unemployment were processed in the March 2024 sample week, which was a month-over decrease of 260 claims from February and a year-over decrease of 5,792 claims from March 2023.
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Lake County jobless rate drops in March
- Elizabeth Larson
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