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MyspaceA report recently released by the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD) found that 700 more people in Santa Barbara County are at work this month compared to last month.
The county’s 8.9 percent unemployment rate, the report states, is down .2 percent from last month. There are currently 19,900 people unemployed within the county.
“It’s certainly good news any time we see the unemployment rates drop, no matter what the percentage,” Santa Barbara County Workforce Investment Board Executive Director Raymond L. McDonald said in a press release. “Knowing that several hundred people are back earning a regular paycheck is good for the local economy, and good for the county.”
In July, Lompoc and Guadalupe – the cities with the highest unemployment rates in the county – have also seen marked improvement with a .5 percent decrease in unemployed. Currently, Lompoc and Guadalupe have unemployment rates of 15.5 and 15 percent, respectively.
For August 2010, Santa Barbara County continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates among California’s 58 counties and continues to rank second lowest in the state behind Marin County’s 8.4 percent rate.
This compares to the unemployment rate statewide of 12.4 percent for California and 9.5 percent for the nation. In July 2010, the statewide unemployment rate was 12.3 percent and, one year ago, the rate was listed at 12.0 percent for California. Santa Barbara County’s rate last year for August 2009 was 9.5 percent, the EDD report said.
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Comments
great unless these are government jobs, meaning the rest of us are paying for them.
JohnLocke (anonymous profile)
September 21, 2010 at 9:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Would you like any government employee to be unemployed until the rest of the country is doing well, keeping their homes and making a profit?
sbpaddy (anonymous profile)
September 21, 2010 at 11:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I've read this information in at least 3 different media outlets and all 3 have left out an important part of the picture: Unempoyment in Lompoc is 15.5%, in Guadalupe is 15%, in Santa Maria is 13.8%, in Orcutt is 9.9%. On the other hand, unemployment in Santa Barbara is 6.3%, in Goleta is 4.4%, in Carpinteria is 4.4%. The unemployement rate in Santa Barbara County is not a countywide problem and the problem in the North is much more dire than the 8.9% figure would indicate. Why would the local media outlets ignore these glaring differences between the economies North and South in Santa Barbara County?
Eckermann (anonymous profile)
September 21, 2010 at 1:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Most of the government jobs are in Santa Barbara.
It. Is. That. Simple.
jukin (anonymous profile)
September 21, 2010 at 3:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ah jukin, simple it is not. Most government workers can't afford to live on the South Coast. In fact, tens of thousands of the South Coast workforce live in the North County (and Ventura County). So are folks who live in Santa Maria or Lompoc but work in Goleta or Santa Barbara (including those pesky government workers) counted in the Santa Maria and Lompoc employment figures or the Santa Barbara and Goleta employment figures? I don't know the answer to that question. It would be a vaulable service for some reporter to do the research and write about it. Also, I assume that all the workers at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the North County fire and police departments, the huge County facility on Betteravia Road, Hancock College and the other schools in the North, all count as government jobs as well. Are you sure about the accuracy of your statement?
Eckermann (anonymous profile)
September 21, 2010 at 4:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It's actually even simpler than that jukin, SB, Goleta, and Carp are full of retired people, seasonal residents, college students, and inherited rental property/converted garage studio coasters. These are the cities with the highest non-working population, but they dont register in "unemployment" figures.
rcobban (anonymous profile)
September 22, 2010 at 11:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Someone expressed an interest in the location of the data I cited earlier. Here it is: http://www.calmis.ca.gov/htmlfile/cou...
Once you hit the page click on "Current Month Labor Force data for cities and places in Santa Barbara County. It comes up as n excel spreadsheet. Cheers.
Eckermann (anonymous profile)
September 22, 2010 at 1:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Eckermann: It was also published as an image in the original press release we posted here:
http://www.independent.com/news/2010/...
webadmin (webadmin)
September 22, 2010 at 1:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)