Unemployment rate sees slight increase in June

A seasonal drop in school hiring caused Sonoma County’s unemployment rate to rise slightly in June to 5.3 percent, but the outlook remained much improved from a year ago.

The jobless rate increased from 5 percent in May, but it stayed markedly below the rate of 7 percent in June 2013.

“It’s gone down quite significantly,” said Linda Wong, North Bay labor consultant for the state’s Economic Development Department.

Total employment declined by 1,200 jobs in June from May. That was equal to the drop in local school jobs. Wong considered that decline a seasonal occurrence, saying, “it’s the beginning of summer, so it’s pretty typical at this time.”

Even with June’s dip, local schools still increased hiring by 1,700 jobs during the past year, a jump of 14.7 percent.

Unemployment in Sonoma County peaked at 11.2 percent during January through March of 2010.

Nearly one in seven workers in the county lost their jobs after the crash of world financial markets in late 2007. The downturn wiped out more than 31,000 local jobs in just two years.

The county’s job numbers have rebounded nearly to their former levels, with the state’s preliminary figures for June’s total employment at 195,900.

Ben Stone, executive director of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board, noted that the county added nearly 7,000 jobs in the past year. He suggested it will be difficult for the unemployment rate to fall much farther.

“Jobs are being created pretty much across the board,” he said.

The hiring has given both business owners and consumers more confidence, he said.

“When I go around the county, people are more optimistic,” Stone said.

The June unemployment rates for California and nation were 7.3 and 6.3 percent, respectively.

Sonoma ranked sixth in June among the state’s 58 counties on the basis of low unemployment rates. Marin ranked first at 4 percent. Napa was in fourth at 4.7 percent. Mendocino County was ranked 11th at 6 percent and Lake County, 41st at 9.1 percent.

Carolyn Stark, executive director of Sonoma County BEST, a job creation program, said the county’s challenge remains building a more diverse economy “so we can ride the business cycles much better than we have in the past.”

Manufacturing and food processing are two sectors where efforts are underway to foster growth. Toward that end, the region’s tech manufacturers will meet next week in Santa Rosa with local suppliers in an effort to do more business together. The effort is sponsored by BEST and 101 MFG, a Petaluma-based alliance of manufacturing executives.

If the manufacturers can work more with local suppliers, Stark said, it will mean more dollars “being reinvested in our county” rather than the Bay Area or elsewhere across the nation.

Total employment in the county has grown on a year-over-year basis for 26 straight months.

Among job sectors, business and professional services added 1,700 jobs in June from a year earlier. Most of those positions were in administrative and support services, Wong said. The sector has enjoyed two straight years of job growth that was greater each month from a year earlier.

You can reach Staff Writer ?Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit