Advertisement
Advertisement

San Diego region’s jobless rate falls to 3.2 percent in September as economy remains strong

Share

The jobless rate in San Diego County dipped in September, fueled by school employees returning to campus and health care hiring.

The state Employment Development Department reported Friday that the local non-adjusted unemployment rate declined to 3.2 percent last month compared with 3.4 percent in August.

Unemployment fell despite an increase in the number of people in the civilian labor force, which topped 1.6 million folks either working or actively seeking jobs.

Advertisement

“It means more people are encouraged to get off the sidelines, join the labor pool and look for work,” said Lynn Reaser, chief economist with the Fermanian Business & Economic Institute at Point Loma Nazarene University.

San Diego County’s September jobless rate compares to 4.1 percent unemployment in California and 3.7 percent nationwide.

“San Diego’s economy remains on solid ground, supported by defense spending, health care, education, technology, and tourism,” said Reaser. “Rising interest rates pose the largest near-term risk, particularly to commercial building and housing.”

Over the past 12 months, San Diego County employers added 27,000 jobs, up from 22,000 for the same period last year.

The gains have been particularly strong in professional occupations such as finance, accounting, technology and human resources, said John Asdell, regional vice president at professional staffing firm Robert Half International.

“Companies are looking at their prospects and they are very encouraged,” he said. “But then they come to grips with the fact that the only thing that is going to curb their growth potential is the fact that they can’t find people and hold onto people.”

Asdell tracks U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on voluntary turnover – or the rate in which employees are quitting, presumably for other jobs.

Voluntary turnover is at its highest level since the dot.com bubble in 2001, he said.

“Staff are leaving because they feel there is less risk because the job market is so strong,” said Asdell. “So that is creating upward pressure on (wages) where frankly companies have to counter-offer to keep their people -- both financially and with work-life balance.”

Employers with the most want ads in the San Diego market in September include UC San Diego, Robert Half, Sharp Healthcare, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, according to the Employment Development Department.

Software developers topped all other occupations for the most want ads locally last month.

“The type of labor that is in the highest demand is skilled labor,” said Asdell. “We need more people graduating from college.”

Since the U.S. economy bottomed from the last recession in June 2009, there have been 111 months of economic expansion, the second longest span in U.S. history. It trails only the 120 months of growth between March 1991 and March 2001.

Jobless statistics can be complicated, in part because non-adjusted numbers fail to account for the seasonal churn that typically occurs in labor markets as the summer tourism winds down, student workers return to class and retailers scale back between back-to-school sales and the holiday hiring rush.

Taking these fluctuations into account, seasonally adjusted payrolls in San Diego County advanced by a solid 3,100 jobs from August to September, said Reaser.

On an non-adjusted basis, local employers posted a net gain of just 700 jobs last month.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate locally matched the non-adjusted rate at 3.2 percent.

“The region’s jobs market appears close to full employment,” said Reaser.

California’s unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1 percent in September from 4.2 percent the previous month — the lowest level in 42 years, according to the state.

Payrolls in the state grew by a modest 13,200 jobs compared with August, with the most gains coming in the business and professional services sector, the leisure and hospitality sector and the government sector. Compared with the same month last year, payrolls were up 2 percent.

Business

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego

760-529-4973