Sonoma County jobless rate increases to 4% in January with omicron spike

Sonoma County’s unemployment rate increased to 4% in January as the omicron wave struck throughout the country, the first uptick since June of last year.

The local jobless rate increased from a revised 3.4% in December, the state Employment Development Department (EDD) reported Friday. That level is still well below the January 2021 estimate of 7.6% before the large-scale vaccination effort against the coronavirus had begun.

The measure is also still much lower than the 15.4% rate seen in April 2020 at the height of the pandemic and nearer to the 2.8% figure registered in February 2020 before COVID-19.

The last time the county’s jobless rate increased during the pandemic was the 6.1% rate of June 2021 from the 5.5% from the previous month.

There were 9,800 unemployment claims in Sonoma County for January, which was a 16.7% increase from December.

California’s unemployment rate remained the same at 5.8% for January while the U.S. rate for the month was at 4.0%

Even with the slight jump, the county’s overall labor market is edging back closer to pre-pandemic levels, said Sonoma State University economist Robert Eyler, who studies local business trends.

Most notably, the overall civilian labor force in the county was at 245,200 workers in January, which is about 10,000 workers less at the time before the virus struck, Eyler said.

The local leisure and hospitality industry employed approximately 23,000 workers in January, which is down about 6.5% from pre-pandemic levels, Eyler said.

That is notable because hotels and restaurants have struggled to attract workers as some have left the area or others have gone onto better-paying jobs. Since the pandemic, that level has not been below 10%, he added.

“Even with omicron, there was pretty good growth in terms of bringing people back,” said Eyler. “That’s creeping up pretty strong, which is nice to see.”

Local education jobs also have been lagging in regards to rehiring as there were 1,400 such state-funded positions filled in January, which is about 39% below from pre-pandemic levels. Those figures may change with further refinement by the EDD, Eyler said.

“It’s probably a mixed bag of retirements and teachers that just haven’t been brought back into the fold yet, like a lot of substitute teachers have probably not come back in earnest,” he said.

Regionally, Marin County had the lowest unemployment level in the state at a 3.1% rate in January, while Mendocino County was at 5.1% and Lake County was at 6.7%, which ranked 41st of the state’s 58 counties.

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 707-521-5233 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.