San Diego’s unemployment rate rose slightly to start the fall as construction and manufacturing shed jobs.
The county’s jobless rate was 4.2 percent in October, up from a revised 4.1 percent the previous month, state labor officials said Friday. San Diego’s rate was higher than the 3.6 percent national average but lower than the California average of 4.8 percent.
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Job losses were relatively minor with construction losing 1,000 jobs, and manufacturing losing 500. It was offset by big gains in government (mainly education) adding 6,200 jobs and a buildup in the retail industry with 3,400 new jobs. Overall, 15,500 jobs were added.
The unemployment rate would be lower if the labor force didn’t continue to grow after lows earlier in the year. The county’s labor force — adults who either have a job or are actively looking for one — was 1.6 million people in October, up 2,100 in a year.
Phil Blair, head of San Diego staffing agency Manpower, said it is getting much easier to fill open positions. At the start of the year, he said workers had mainly been only taking permanent jobs, leaving temporary positions unfilled. Blair said he’s seen a shift recently of people more willing to take on temporary jobs that might last two to four months.
“We are seeing more people coming into the job market,” he said. “Employers can be selective again.”
Other industries to add work in October were private and education services, with 3,100 jobs; professional and business services, adding 2,900; leisure and hospitality (hotels, gambling, restaurants), up by 1,000; and financial activities (real estate, insurance, investments), adding 700.
Daniel Enemark, chief economist at the San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center, said San Diego County’s unemployment rate was also 4.2 percent when adjusted for seasonal swings. That compares to the seasonally adjusted U.S. average of 3.9 percent and 4.8 percent in California.
“This is below the “natural rate of unemployment” (also called the noncyclical or non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment), so the labor market remains tight,” he said.
Enemark said the drop off in construction jobs was unusual for this time of the year, which has typically increased in October over the last decade.
“This change is a disappointment,” he said, “since our region needs more construction workers to build housing and to take advantage of infrastructure funding coming from the state and federal government.”
The national unemployment rate has slowly increased from a post-pandemic low of 3.4 percent in January. President Joe Biden said in a statement about October’s jobless claims it was fortunate that efforts to slow inflation did not hammer the jobs market.
“American workers have achieved these gains while inflation has fallen by 60 percent,” he said, “and core inflation is at its lowest level in two years — defying projections that it would take a sharp increase in unemployment to bring inflation down.”
On an annual basis, San Diego County’s largest growing industry has been leisure and hospitality, with 11,100. It was followed by private education and health services, 10,100 jobs; trade, transportation and utilities (mainly retail), 3,700; and financial activities, general services (laundry, maintenance, religious) and government all added 2,200.
The industries that have lost workers are professional and business services (legal, scientific, waste management, architectural), down by 3,800; Manufacturing, down 1,800; and information (broadcasting, telecommunications, newspapers, publishing industry), which lost 600 positions.
State officials do not seasonally adjust jobless rates for individual counties. Compared with other parts of California, San Diego County was about middle-of-the-pack with its rate of 4.2 percent.
The rate was 5 percent in Los Angeles County, 3.7 percent in Orange County, 3.4 percent in San Francisco County, 3.8 percent in Santa Clara County, 4.8 percent in Santa Cruz County and 5.2 percent in Riverside County.
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