Santa Barbara County’s unemployment rate in November 2014 was 5.7 percent, a slight bump from October’s rate of 5.4 percent, but still lower than November 2013, which was 6.4 percent.
According to a press release from the Workforce Investment Board of Santa Barbara County, the numbers were as expected with some “unfortunate changes from the previous month.”
Guadalupe and Lompoc both slid into the double digits for November 2014, with Lompoc sliding in at 10 percent and Guadalupe higher still at 10.3 percent, and Santa Maria came in at 9.4 percent. Solvang, Goleta, and Carpinteria, and Santa Ynez came in under 3 percent.
The Workforce Investment Board reported that between November 2013 and 2014 the total labor force in Santa Barbara County grew by 5,000 workers, from 223,200 to 228,200.
“The sector that produced the most jobs was retail, which is consistent with the holiday season and are probably temporary jobs,” Raymond McDonald, the board’s executive director, said in the release. “There were unexpected gains in local government jobs (300), while the professional and business services sector was flat—as employers delayed permanent hiring during the holidays, and routinely make up for this lull during the first few months of the new year.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the national unemployment rate stayed steady at 5.8 percent from October to November 2014, but is lower than it was in the same months of 2013. California’s unemployment rate dipped 0.1 percent to 7.2 percent in November 2014.
According to the California Labor Market Review, the largest group of unemployed persons have been unemployed for 52 weeks or longer.
This article appears in Jan 8-15, 2015.