Labor Market Report shows progress in lower unemployment

By Santa Ynez Valley Star Staff · Tue Mar 17 2020

By Economic Development Collaborative Staff

The California Labor Market Information Division released its August 2020 report Sept. 18, displaying that our unemployment rate improved considerably, from 11.4 percent in July to 9.1 percent in August. That’s at least a bit counter to circumstance we were worried about, that there may have been a slowdown in our improvement in the unemployment rate in late July and going into August with state and local policies for slowing down business re-opening to manage the pandemic. There’s a lot to unpack in the monthly report’s detail, so please read on, though the summary data can be found at www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov.

Labor Force Participation: What’s most interesting about the August data is that the unemployment rate doesn’t appear to be much of a meaningful indicator on what’s happening locally in our labor market. More important is to note that the unemployment rate dropped owing to a combination of two factors: one, the good news, we had 10,100 fewer unemployed workers in August, and two, the bad news, we had 6,200 workers drop out of the labor force for lack of opportunity. In other words, about a third of our improvement in the unemployment rate had nothing to do with workers filling jobs, rather it’s attributable to workers dropping out, no longer even looking for work. Ventura County’s total labor force—that is, the total of all employed and officially unemployed—is at 406,500, the lowest it’s been in 17 years, since August 2003, then at 405,300. 

Unemployment and Under-Employment: While reducing the ranks of the unemployed from 47,000 in July to 36,900 in August represents real gain, we also recognize that one year ago that number was 16,200 and our labor force—even then disconcertingly low—included an additional 13,200 workers. And as noted last month, we estimate there’s as many as an additional 50,000 “involuntary part-time” workers whose incomes are significantly reduced (with retail, hospitality and other services only partially open). This loss of income is not represented in the labor force or other immediately available data as they’re at least still partially employed. 

And further as noted in prior months, what’s particularly concerning is that these unemployed and under-employed workers are disproportionately concentrated in low income families and jobs and minority communities, with unemployment insurance now far from a complete income replacement.

Industry Employment: Looking at employer-reported data, the data is more than a bit confounding, as it shows a gain of only 2,600 jobs, net of a loss of 1,100 jobs in farm and a gain of 3,700 jobs in the non-farm sectors. Some highlights include: