Yuba-Sutter jobless rate ‘still relatively high'

Year-to-year, Yuba-Sutter's unemployment rate dipped slightly in December but was still up from the previous month, the state reported Friday.

The unemployment rate in the Yuba City metropolitan statistical area was 18.1 percent in December, up from a revised 16.8 percent in November, and below the year-ago estimate of 20.5 percent, according to the Employment Development Department.

Sutter County has the third highest unemployment rate in the state, ranking 56th out of 58 counties at 19.3 percent. Yuba County ranks 51st, at 16.4 percent.

The year-to-year decrease is encouraging, but it's not time to celebrate, said Diana Barry, EDD's employment program manager at the Yuba County One-Stop.

"They are not as high as they have been some years, but they are still relatively high," she said. "I think people are getting jobs but we still have in our particular area a lot of people who are seasonal employees."

Whether farmworkers or retail, this region's unemployment is affected by seasonal workers, with more agricultural laborers out of work and the holiday surge in retail jobs countered by their January layoffs.

A few business openings brought new jobs to the area, including a shavings and rice hull bagging plant in Yuba City and an energy tracking and carbon management company in Marysville, said Darin Gale, Yuba City's economic development manager. But the greatest potential for job growth lies with existing local businesses, such as the few openings posted by New Earth Market this week.

In talking with local companies, Gale has gotten a sense from employers that growth is coming, even if it starts with one part-time position. "Most of them are expressing much more optimism than they were a year ago," he said. "They feel like their head is above water and they can see the future."

And any recovery is cyclical, Gale said. As unemployment decreases, it creates more disposable income, which spurs more local spending, which generates more opportunity to create jobs.

"Any improvement in our region is definitely positive," Gale said. "Hopefully this means there has been more jobs and not that our unemployment numbers went down because people stopped looking for jobs."

But the good news of a year-over-year recovery does not discount that the region's unemployment is well into the double digits, Gale said.

"What it comes down to is those people who are looking for jobs, they want to work," he said. "We still have an uphill battle."

The state unemployment rate also dropped two-tenths of a percentage point from November, to 11.1 percent, its lowest rate since 2009. EDD officials said the steady drop in the official jobless rate was a sign of gradual improvement in California's economy.

December marked the fourth consecutive month in which the state employment rate has dropped, a period during which it declined a full percentage point and the state gained 112,300 payroll jobs.

"It's pretty definitive if you look at the year over how far we've come," department spokesman Kevin Callori said. "It's definitely quite a reversal."

For Yuba-Sutter residents, depending on job skills, transferable skills and the distance people are willing to drive for work, there are jobs available, Barry said.

"If people are willing to commute, that certainly broadens the labor market of where they can find a job," she said.

CONTACT Ashley Gebb at agebb@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4783. Find her on Facebook at /ADagebb or on Twitter at @ADagebb. The Associated Press contributed to this report.