California’s unemployment rate stalled at 7.5% (seasonally adjusted) in September, according to the Employment Development Department’s Friday report.
The national unemployment rate is 5.2%. California, alongside Nevada, has the highest unemployment rate in the country.
Around 47,400 jobs were added to the state’s growing workforce, a growth of about 0.3%. From February through September, California has averaged an additional 101,500 jobs each month.
“Our economic recovery continues to make promising progress, with 812,000 new jobs this year and regaining over 63% of those jobs we lost to the pandemic. As we continue averaging record job creation, our work is more important than ever to get more Californians back on the job and support those hardest hit by the pandemic,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
Gov. Newsom hoped to bring the economy “roaring back” with the Golden State Stimulus and California Comeback Plan. But the delta variant spread as lawmakers approved the “comeback plan.”
The state’s lowest recorded unemployment rate was 4.1%, which held from April through November 2019. It rose slightly before shooting up to 16% in April 2020. August and September’s rate of 7.5% is the lowest since.
The number of employed Californians is up 5% from September 2020. About 10.6% of the workforce was unemployed.
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
Santa Barbara County’s unemployment rate decreased in September, bringing it to its lowest since February 2020.
About 4.7% of Santa Barbara County’s workforce was unemployed in September, down from 5.5% in August. (County statistics are not seasonally adjusted.)
The unadjusted unemployment rate for California is 6.4%, and the unadjusted national rate is 4.6% during the same period.
In September, Santa Barbara County gained 2,100 nonfarm jobs and lost 1,100 agricultural jobs.
A loss of 600 jobs in the “professional and business services” sector allowed government jobs — which increased by 1,600, or about 5% — to become the main source of employment.
The leisure and hospitality industry, another leader in the county, gained 700 jobs in September. The hospitality sector had the biggest month-over change statewide.
email: ahanshaw@newspress.com
