Solano County unemployment rate holds steady
(Graphic by Solano News Update)
Solano County’s unemployment rate remains higher this year compared to last year but is lower than the overall state unemployment rate for September, according to figures released by the state’s employment department on Friday.
The California Employment Development Department (EDD) said Solano County added around 1,700 new jobs between August and September, dropping the region’s unemployment rate by one-tenth of a percent.
For September, Solano County’s unemployment rate stood at 9.7 percent, EDD officials said, a slight decrease from August’s 9.8 percent unemployment rate. (August’s unemployment rate was adjusted downward based on preliminary figures reported in September).
The percentage of those without jobs in Solano County is lower than California’s overall unemployment rate of 10.8 percent. The national unemployment rate hovers at around 8 percent, according to state and federal data.
The bulk of Solano County’s net jobs for September were found in local government, which can be attributed to the start of school season. 500 retail jobs were added in Solano County in September, EDD said, while 100 jobs were eliminated in the food, beverage and general merchandise industries.
Solano County ranked at the bottom of nine San Francisco Bay Area counties in terms of unemployment and 41st across all 58 California counties, the EDD data showed.
Imperial County had the highest amount of unemployed individuals with 21.5 percent, according to state figures. Lassen County has the lowest unemployment rate.
Both state and federal unemployment data collates the number of individuals who are receiving regular or extended unemployment benefits. It does not include individuals who have been out of work and are no longer receiving EDD benefits, those who are jobless and did not qualify for EDD benefits and people who have stopped looking for work altogether.
State figures showed a year-over-year decrease in jobs across the 11 sectors measured by EDD.
In late September, EDD paused the processing of new claims for those who were newly unemployed because of a severe backlog affecting around 1.6 million individuals. That backlog included around 1 million claimants who had received at least one pandemic-related benefit payment only to have future claims go unprocessed for any number of reasons.
It was not immediately clear how EDD’s decision to temporarily halt new claims and clear its backlog affected the state’s unemployment figures.
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