Business & Tech

Unemployment Dips in State, Increases in Some Local Cities

The state showed a slight dip in unemployment in June, but non-seasonally adjusted figures for individual cities show an overall increase in unemployment.

Seasonally-adjusted unemployment dipped in California in May from 8.6 percent to 8.5 percent, according to figures released Friday by the California Employment Development Department.

However many local cities and counties saw an increase in unemployment figures as those local figures are not seasonally adjusted to account for fluctuations in normal seasonal labor throughout the year.  While non-seasonally adjusted unemployment has been dipping throughout the state for several months, in June the figure jumped from 8.1 percent to 8.8 percent.

Dan Stephens, a spokesman for the state's Employment Development Department, said that the non seasonally adjusted unemployment rate tends to go up in June.

"In June, with the end of the school year and ramp up of summer travel and activities, there are typically large numbers of people who enter the labor market looking for seasonal work and not all of them find it.  As a result, unemployment (including the rate) typically rises in June, and does so every year. " Stephens wrote in an email.

Even accounting for seasonal work, L.A. County's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate saw an increase in unemployment from 9.6 percent in May to 9.7 in June at the same time the state's unemployment rate dipped.  
 
Distinct figures for Highland Park are not available but the City of Los Angeles as a whole went up from 10.2 percent in May to 11.3 percent in June.  Nearby Pasadena went from 7 percent in May to 7.8 percent in June.

The seasonal adjustment accounts for seasonal shifts in labor such as increased construction and agricultural work in spring and summer - only non-seasonally adjusted figures are available for individual cities.

Data from the state indicates that work categories with significant job losses from May to June were construction, information, financial activities, professional and business services and other services.

How to Use the Map

You can see how every city in the state fared in May's report, by clicking on it in the above map.  The blue cities are within 10 percent of the state average, the light green are have unemployment rates at least 50 percent lower than state average, and darker green cities are between.

Conversely, the bright red cities have unemployment rates at least 50 percent higher than state average and the lighter red cities are between.


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