54.7 F
Laguna Hills
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
-Advertisement-

May Employment Continues Improving Trend

The county’s job market showed more improvement in May, with employment growth from April, lessened losses from a year earlier and lower unemployment from a month before.

Employers here added 9,100 jobs in May from April, according to the state Employment Development Department.

It was the strongest monthly gain since February, when the county added 100,600 jobs on a monthly basis.

In April, employers here added 4,700 jobs from March.

As was the case in April, federal hiring for the Census and hotels ramping up for summer drove May’s monthly increase.

But the month’s hiring wasn’t all seasonal or temporary: The broad trade, transportation and utilities category added 2,200 jobs in May from April.

The category includes retailers, distributors and others. More than three-quarters of the category’s gain came from retailers.

The county’s unemployment rate was 9.2% in May, down from a revised 9.5% in April and 8.6% a year earlier.

Total nonfarm employment here was 1.37 million last month.

The county continued to lose jobs on an annual basis but saw yearly layoffs slow to their slowest pace since the peak of the recession in early 2009.

Employment declined by 14,800 jobs, or 1.1%, in May from a year earlier.

That was a marked improvement from April, when the county lost 28,400 jobs from a year earlier, a 2% decline.

The peak in yearly job losses in the current downturn came in early 2009, when the county lost some 72,000 jobs.

The hard-hit construction sector continues to lose jobs, on a monthly and yearly basis.

More than 12,000 constructions jobs were lost in May from a year earlier. Four hundred construction jobs were lost from April to May.

Want more from the best local business newspaper in the country?

Sign-up for our FREE Daily eNews update to get the latest Orange County news delivered right to your inbox!

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-