Jobs, Unemployment Rate Up

Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased slightly to 3.5 percent in October from 3.6 percent in September.

“Iowa’s economy continues to improve”, Townsend said in a statement. “Next year, employees, especially those with high skills and who are bringing high value to their firms, can look forward to larger raises”.

The unemployment rate in Turlock for October was at 7.6 percent, up from a rate of 6.7 percent in September.

Government positions grew by 7,200 over the past month, mainly in state government and teaching jobs, according to the EDD. Because agriculture is such a substantial force in the Valley’s economy, “even though we saw seasonal gains in other industries, the loss of farm jobs kind of wipes things out because it was such a large drop”, Gutierrez added.

The gain in nonfarm employment to 1,577,300 jobs was primarily driven by private services and isolated to only two super sectors.

For perspective, in October a year ago San Diego County’s overall unemployment rate was 6.0 percent.

Leisure and hospitality jobs rose 7.4 percent.

Napa County has the fifth lowest unemployment rate for the state, the EDD said. Many retired, but others simply gave up after months of looking for jobs without success. The number of Iowa residents with jobs climbed to 1.64 million in October, up about 4,000 from September. Graduates from college and high school tend to swell the statistic this time of year, but at least their numbers weren’t offset by retirees and discouraged job-seekers.

These figures compare with an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent for California and 4.8 percent for the nation during the same period, the data shows. It’s followed by Vacaville at 4.5 percent, Dixon at 4.8 percent, Suisun City at 4.9 percent and Fairfield at 5.1 percent.