Sonoma County unemployment drops in April

Sonoma County appears to have fully recovered from the recession and is on track to eclipse the employment record set in 2007, the state reported Friday.

The county’s total workforce in April, excluding domestic workers and the self-employed, expanded for the third straight month to 202,100 workers, the state Employment Development Department reported. The figure is only 300 shy of the record high in October 2007, just before the region plunged into recession.

Hiring in the construction sector has been particularly strong in the past year, adding 700 jobs just from March to April. Gail Cochran, chief financial officer for RCX, Inc., a civil engineering construction firm in Windsor, said her biggest problem is finding qualified workers. The company employs about 35.

“I attribute it to unemployment being low in Sonoma County,” she said. “It’s a sign that things are good.”

The jobless rate in Sonoma County fell to 4.2 percent in April, down from 4.6 percent in March and below the year-ago estimate of 5.3 percent, the EDD reported.

California’s unemployment rate over the same period was 6.3 percent. Nationwide, the rate was 5.4 percent.

Ben Stone, executive director of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board, said the numbers show the economic recovery has taken hold here.

“I think the challenge going forward is the having the workforce people need,” he said.

In Sonoma County, the largest increases in hiring over the past year have been in the construction sector and in administrative and support services, both of which added 1,800 jobs.

Cochran said she wasn’t surprised by the numbers. RCX, which was founded in 2003 and pulled through the recession, provides grading, paving, underground utilities work and other services for homeowners, wineries and other clients.

“People are relaxing again. I think that’s all it is,” she said.

Stone said construction related to home-building is not at the level it was prior to the onset of the recession. But he said commercial building is strong. He expects growth in the construction sector to “accelerate as the recovery matures.”

Hiring for tourism-related work continued on an upswing as companies prepare for the summer crush. Roughly one-quarter of the jobs in Sonoma County are attributed to the wine industry and related businesses, including tourism, according to an economic study funded by vintners.

Retailers, health care services and local government also posted gains in the past month.

Only six counties in California had lower unemployment rates than Sonoma County in April. Five are located in the Bay Area: San Mateo, at 3.2 percent; Marin, 3.3 percent; San Francisco, 3.4 percent; Santa Clara, 3.8 percent; Napa, 4.1 percent and Orange, 4.1 percent.

Mendocino County reported 5.5 percent unemployment; Lake County, 7.1 percent; and Napa County, 4.1 percent.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek.