L.A. County’s unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in December from a revised 5.1 percent in November as more people entered the local workforce.
But the county also eked out a gain of 14,000 payroll jobs in December compared to November, an increase of 0.3 percent to 4,079,600 jobs, according to figures released Friday from the state Employment Development Department.
For all of 2005, about 50,000 payroll jobs were created, for a net gain of 1.2 percent. That’s slightly higher than the 0.9 percent gain for all of 2004.
The total employment picture was brighter in 2005. Total civilian employment reached a record 4,714,900 jobs in December for a 3.2 percent gain for the year. Unlike the payroll jobs figures, which are culled from payroll records that companies submit to the state, the civilian employment figures are based on a survey of households and include self-employed and contract workers.
But it’s the steep rise in the unemployment rate that will likely garner more attention. The seasonally adjusted rate has risen more than 1 percentage point since the near-record lows of September and October. This may reflect what appeared to be an earlier holiday hiring season this year; in most years, holiday hiring hits full stride in November.
Also, the state is using a new model to extrapolate civilian unemployment rates. The new model was designed to include more seasonal hiring and self-employed, according to Brad Kemp, labor market consultant for the L.A. area with the EDD.
The 5.5 percent unemployment rate is still 1 full percentage point below the 6.5 percent posted in December 2004.
But the county has a higher unemployment rate than surrounding counties, the state and the nation as a whole.
The statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.1 percent in December, down from a revised 5.3 percent in November. And the national unemployment rate was 4.9 percent.
What’s more, after having lower unemployment percentage for the last several months, L.A. County now has the highest jobless rate among counties in the L.A. metropolitan area. Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties all posted unemployment rates in the low 4 percent range, while Orange County’s rate was 3.2 percent, the lowest of all the state’s 58 counties.
On the payroll jobs side, the relatively meager overall 0.3 percent growth between November and December was led by a jump of 8,400 jobs in the retail sector.
Other sectors reporting job gains from November to December were motion pictures and sound recording (1,300 jobs), leisure and hospitality (1,400 jobs) and manufacturing (1,400 jobs). The jump in manufacturing reflected increases in both durable and non-durable goods. (Durable goods reflects anything that lasts longer than three years.)
For all of 2005, the biggest gains were in the motion pictures and sound recording industry, which saw a jump of 13,800 jobs. That was followed by leisure and hospitality (11,100 jobs) and construction (8,100 jobs).
Despite the December gains, manufacturing employment was still down 0.9 percent for the year, reflecting a loss of 4,500 jobs.
At the local level, both the cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach posted an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent, up from November readings of 5.5 percent and 5.6 percent respectively.
The lowest unemployment rate among L.A. County cities with more than 100,000 population was Torrance at 2.4 percent, followed by 2.9 percent in Santa Clarita. The highest unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in Lancaster, followed by 6.4 percent in Inglewood.
