Unemployment Up, Uncertainty Looms

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The unemployment rate in Los Angeles Country was 4.9 percent in August, up from 4.8 percent in July, the state’s Employment Development Department said Friday.


The county also saw non-farm payroll employment drop by 4,000, or 0.1 percent, from July levels to 4,103,400 jobs. Year-over-year employment growth slowed to 0.9 percent as the county gained only 36,300 jobs between August 2006 and August 2007.


The largest decline in employment was in government jobs, which was mainly due to the summer closure of schools. Manufacturing was also hit but those losses were mitigated by boosts in professional and business services, trade and transportation, and construction, the report said.


The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.5 percent for the month, up from 5.3 percent in July and 4.9 percent for the same period a year earlier.


While the up-tick in the county unemployment level is minor, spokesman Brad Kemp said the next report should paint a clearer picture as to how much the housing slump and the subsequent layoffs from mortgage lenders have affected the economy.


“There’s a cascade effect with the numbers, so we don’t see the impact on the economy of layoffs immediately” he said. “But we’ll be looking at next month’s numbers very diligently.”

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