COUNTYWIDE : Jobless Rate Hits 8.2% in February
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Ventura County’s unemployment rate edged slightly upward to 8.2% in February, with the number of people unemployed surpassing the 30,000 mark for the first time, state officials said Tuesday.
The county’s jobless rate rose from 7.2% the year before and 8.1% in January, officials said.
Unemployment in California was 9.2% in February, compared with 8.1% nationwide. The estimates are not adjusted for seasonal employment variations in certain industries.
State officials said the unemployment rate might actually have improved slightly in February if not for the heavy rains that idled construction workers.
“On the surface, it looks to be worse than it really is” in the building trades, said Avelina Villalobos, manager of the northern Oxnard office of the state Employment Development Department. “A lot of that (work loss) was temporary.”
Still, unemployment in the county remains at its highest level since the 8.3% rate reported in June, 1985, officials said.
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