State, O.C. Unemployment Rates Fall

California added another 24,500 jobs in October, marking the 24th consecutive month of record payroll employment, state officials said Friday in another bullish report on the state’s economy.

More than 1.2 million jobs have been created since the low point of the recession in 1993, and 342,800 positions have been added in the last year alone, according to the Employment Development Department.

The unemployment rate edged down to a seasonally adjusted 6.3% from an upwardly revised 6.4% in September. In October 1996, California’s jobless rate stood at 7.0%.

Orange County’s payrolls swelled by 5,600 last month and are 34,300 ahead of October 1996--a 2.9% annual gain. The county unemployment rate sank to 3.3% from a revised 3.5% in September. Unlike the state’s, the Orange County unemployment rate is not seasonally adjusted.

Orange County’s jobless rate, which has remained below 4% all year, is the fourth-lowest in California.

The report was the latest installment in a string of good news for the state, where job growth has outpaced the nation’s.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 4.7% in October, but California is steadily closing the gap. The state’s jobless rate should dip to the mid-5% range next year, said Ted Gibson, chief economist at the state Department of Finance.

Gibson noted that statewide employment growth was dampened slightly last month by a Foster Farms strike in Livingston, which reduced payrolls by 2,500, and by a possible undercounting of restaurant employment.

“The job growth is even better than it looks,” he said. “To me, the underlying growth was close to 30,000, which is a pretty good number for the month.”

Steve Cochrane, senior economist at Regional Financial Associates in West Chester, Pa., noted that the unemployment rate has leveled off in recent months, even as job growth continues to be strong, largely because the number of new entrants to the labor force is at a four-year high.

“It implies that the strong labor-market conditions are drawing new people in who had been sitting on the sidelines,” he said.

Another positive sign, he said, is that a larger share of those who are unemployed left their jobs voluntarily, rather than being fired or laid off. That shows “there’s less anxiety about the labor market,” he said.

“In bad times, if you’re unhappy with your job you may hang on to it anyway. In good times, you may just say, ‘I quit,’ and then go out and look for a good job.”

In Orange County, aircraft and parts manufacturers kept adding jobs, with industry employment rising 1.3% to 7,600. The aircraft and parts industry has grown 20% in the last year as demand for commercial aircraft, missiles and spacecraft has gained speed.

“There are almost no negatives that one can see on the horizon in the near term,” said Anil Puri, director of Cal State Fullerton’s Institute for Economic and Environmental Studies.

Statewide, the construction sector continued its climb in October, as employment rose 1,300 from September and was up more than 50,000 from a year earlier. Industrial and office building is still growing rapidly a year into its rebound, residential development is starting to pick up, and government-sponsored projects are also underway.

“You name it, they’re building it right now in California,” Cochrane said. “It’s one of the strongest industries right now and one of the reasons the California economy will continue going for the next year.”

More jobs were added last month in the aircraft, electronics and communications equipment industries. Semiconductor equipment manufacturers, who are vulnerable to the economic turmoil in Asia, also continued to hire.

“That’s encouraging,” Gibson said. “At least for the moment, we’re still seeing growth, which reflects that we’re not being hurt by the turbulence overseas.”

However, Cochrane warned that the financial instability in Thailand, South Korea and Japan is one of the biggest risks to California’s economy. A turn for the worse in those economies could deal a particularly hard blow to trade-sensitive Los Angeles and Orange counties, he said.

Los Angeles County’s jobless rate fell again last month, to a seasonally adjusted 6.5% from a revised 6.7% in September and 8% a year before.

Riverside County’s jobless rate fell to 8.2% from 8.8%, and San Bernardino County’s rate was 6.3%, down from 6.6% in September. Ventura County’s rate declined to 6.6% from 7.7%. These rates are not seasonally adjusted.

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Low Profile

Unemployment in Orange County dipped slightly in October from the previous month and was a half-point lower than the rate last October:

1997

Oct.: 3.3

Source: California Employment Development Department; Researched by JANICE L.JONES / Los Angeles Times

A Rare October

Orange County October jobless rates:

1993 6.6%

1997 3.3

Source: California Employment Development Department