L.A. County’s unemployment rate rose again to 5.6% in August from 5.5% in July, its highest level in nearly two-and-a-half years. The uptick came despite modest growth of nearly 14,000 payroll jobs for the month.
Those are the key takeaways from the monthly unemployment and payroll jobs data release on Sept. 20 from the state Employment Development Department for Los Angeles County.
The rise in the unemployment rate was due in part to more people entering the labor force looking for work in August, which led to an increase of 19,000 in the size of the labor force compared to July.
In August of last year, the unemployment rate stood at 5.1%.
The county’s unemployment rate was above the statewide average for August of 5.3% and well above the national average of 4.2%.
The Employment Development Department also released a breakout of August unemployment rates by city, though unlike the countywide average, these are not adjusted for seasonal factors. The rates for the two largest cities in the county – Los Angeles and Long Beach – were identical at 6.8%.
Among cities with labor forces exceeding 10,000, Lomita had the lowest seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate of 2.8% in August, while Calabasas had the highest rate at 9.5% – nearly one out of every 10 residents in the labor force.
Among cities in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Antelope and Conejo valleys with labor forces exceeding 10,000, the city of San Fernando had the lowest seasonally-unadjusted unemployment rate in August of 5.1%, followed by Santa Clarita (6.2%) and then Glendale (6.5%).
At the high end in the quad-valley area, after Calabasas and its 9.5% unemployment rate in August, next were Palmdale (9.0%) and Lancaster (8.9%). Burbank’s rate came in at 8.1%.
Turning to employer payrolls, August’s increase of 13,700 jobs represented a modest rebound from the steep drop of 31,000 jobs in July and brough the total payroll job tally in the county to 4,572,900.
The biggest increase came in K-12 public education, which added 23,000 jobs; several local school districts – including Los Angeles Unified – began their new academic year in August.
To account for this expected seasonal increase, the state also released a seasonally adjusted payroll jobs figure for August that showed a slight drop of 1,000 jobs compared to July.
Returning to the unadjusted figures, the only other industry registering a significant increase in payroll jobs in August was health care/social assistance, up 6,800 jobs.
On the downside, the motion picture/sound recording industry posted the largest drop of 4,300 payroll jobs in August as that industry is continuing to contract from its peak television era of a few years back. Professional/business services was the only other industry to post a significant drop of 1,400 jobs.
For the 12 months ending in August, employers in the county added on net 78,000 jobs for a year-over-year increase of 1.7%. Nearly half of that gain came from the health care/social assistance sector, which added 37,700 jobs over that 12-month stretch. Other gainers included local government K-12 education (up 17,500 jobs) and accommodation/food services (up 11,600 jobs).
The professional/business services sector saw the largest drop for the 12 months ending in August, shedding on net 8,700 jobs. Most of those came in the administrative/support services subsector, which posted a drop of 6,500 jobs.
Not far behind was the manufacturing sector, which on net shed about 4,000 jobs during the 12 months ending in August. The total of 314,000 employed in manufacturing in August was down by exactly 500,000 jobs from the total recorded in August 1990, representing a drop of more than 60%.
