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SLO County unemployment rate drops to record low

June 24, 2019

Unemployment tumbled to an all time low in San Luis Obispo County in May as the region gained about 200 new jobs during the past month, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday. [Cal Coast Times]

With more jobs available fewer people are looking for work, driving the unemployment rate down to 2.4 percent in May, from 2.7 percent in April. In May 2018, the jobless rate was 2.5 percent, the former record.

Over the past month, the largest employment increases were seen in the leisure and hospitality services sector, which added 200 new jobs, primarily related to hotel and resort employees.

San Luis Obispo County is ranked seventh out of 58 California counties for lower numbers of unemployed workers. SLO County’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average of 3.4 percent and the state’s 3.5 percent rate.

In California, San Mateo and San Fransisco counties are tied for first and second place with unemployment rates of 1.9 percent and Imperial County comes in on the bottom with an unemployment rate of 16.4 percent.


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Does everyone trust these unemployment statistics? Is it possible that these numbers are inaccurate for the purpose of manipulating them to fit a predetermined agenda.


Nah… nothing like that happens in this new world of fake and alternative facts.


2

I question every statistic on every topic when it’s a government source. Government’s primary job is to protect the government……”national security” and so forth.


But…..I’ve seen the explosion of homelessness with my own eyes and even government statistics are showing it has grown a whole bunch in the last 5 years.


So, I question thus:


1. how is it possible to have nearly full employment alongside a massive and growing homeless crisis? If someone can explain it, I’m all ears.


2. Given the government’s habitual lying, which statistic are they lying about? Employment? Homelessness? both? How are they skewing the data?


San Francisco, we’re told in the article above, boasts the lowest unemployment rate in California. At the same time, they have the worst homeless problem in California—or at least vie with LA for the worst.


If a booming economy and fantastic job market exists alongside record numbers of homeless (and growing!) then exactly how are we supposed to find jobs for these people so they can get off the street and live better?


Something isn’t adding up here…..


-2

83.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot…


2

Did anyone notice that each of the counties with low unemployment are highest cost of living? And the numbers for May are “preliminary”.

Did anyone notice that each of the counties with low unemployment are highest cost of living? And the numbers for May are “preliminary”. Perhaps a more complete look at the numbers would be useful. I was curious so went to look at https://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/geography/sanluisobispo-county.html

What I noticed was a real decrease since January in the available labor force count (1,300), a minor rise in # of people employed (400) and little explanation for that change and significant decrease in count of unemployed (1,600). Could it be that these unemployed people had to leave the area simply to keep a roof over their heads? This also does not take into account the harsh reality that many in the labor force are working 2-3 jobs to make ends meet.

May (preliminary) 2019 in specific communities

`


Area

Labor Force

No.of Unemployed

Unemployment Rate %


Arroyo Grande city

9,200

200

2.1


Atascadero city

15,500

400

2.3


Cambria CDP

2,700

100

3.6


Cayucos CDP

1,400

0

2


El Paso de Robles (Paso Robles) city

16,200

400

2.3


Grover Beach city

6,800

200

2.3


Morro Bay city

5,100

100

2.7


Nipomo CDP

9,100

300

2.8


Oceano CDP

3,700

100

3.2


Pismo Beach city

4,300

100

1.9


San Luis Obispo city

25,500

500

1.9


San Luis Obispo County

140,500

3,400

2.4


San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grande MSA

140,500

3,400

2.4


San Miguel CDP

1,300

100

6.3


Santa Maria city

48,800

2,100

4.2


Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA

218,000

6,400

2.9


Shandon CDP

700

0

4


Templeton CDP

4,000

0

1.1


4

a


-2

These numbers are meaningless in the big picture. Jobs? What kind of jobs? How much do they pay? How many hours are people working? Are these people buying homes and raising families? Do these jobs allow one parent to stay home and raise the children? Do these jobs allow one to save for retirement and to put kids thru college? At what age do their employees retire? etc etc etc. More info is needed to make an accurate analysis of the quality of life on the self centered coast. My comment isn’t aimed at the author here, but at national politics in general, i think it’s a worthy topic to explore as it affects us and the future of our civilization.


9

Lowest unemployment rates ever….all across the land. GREAT!


Highest homeless rate ever…all across the land, especially in CA. WTF?


Can someone please explain to me how we can have record numbers living on the street alongside the best job market ever?


26

Easy to explain. In the last 40 years income inequality has exploded. Currently, 25% of American workers make minimum wage—in SLO County that figures out to about $25k a year. Average rent is more than $2k a month in SLO. Although wages have increased modestly in the last 10 years of this current economic recovery, the truth is that the rich have garnered the lion’s share of new wealth. Since the Great Recession the top 10% of earners took home 50% of all income, the top 1% took 20%. This is the highest percentage in the last 100 years. Unfortunately, elected officials at the highest levels have zero incentive to change this with a restructured tax code, a raise in the minimum wage or encouragement for workers to organize into unions and demand higher wages because they are, for the most part, in the 10%. Even Bernie Sanders admits to being a millionaire as he rails against millionaires.


7

“Bernie Sanders admits to being a millionaire as he rails against billionaires.”


Fixed it for you. He wrote a book, big deal. Turn off fox, go for a walk.


-9

Don’t watch Fox News. At my age, I still love my newspapers, although I have to read them on the computer these days. Too damned expensive to subscribe to the inky volume. Too bad, used to love a cup of coffee and a freshly printed paper in the morning. And I walk everyday. The dog demands it.


By the way, if you had actually read my comment, you would find that my three suggestions for mitigating income inequality come right from Bernie’s playbook.


-9

It’s the cooling affect of THE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA.


You (seemingly) and many others say the word “rich” as though thats a negative connotation. We’re firmly in the mid to upper middle class ourselves but without the entrepreneurs/corporations that created those jobs that we occupy, we’d be fully screwed or forced to create our own work. Which, btw, this great country allows any of us the opportunity to try as well with smarts, hard work and determination to live the dream.


The dumbing down part comes in to play when others try to garner sympathy for those that made poor life, education and career choices leading them to a life of financial inadequacy. That’s a personal responsibility issue that this hard working American of Hispanic descent has ZERO sympathy for.


You make your own bed in this great country, lie in it and quit complaining about bad personal choices in this free country.


In the end, “DON’T TREAD ON ME” because so many others failed themselves.


0

An explanation? Simple: try fixing up a little shed or studio somewhere on your property so it’s good enough for someone to live there even if it’s just a crash pad with a toilet. Or try fixing up an old RV or trailer that’s sitting unused but could be a perfectly great home for someone. Then rent it to someone, anybody.


See how long it takes before your REAL master, whose principles claim to care about the least among us but who really only care about bossing you around, comes down on you you like ton of bricks with $$$$$$$ in fines and even more $$$$$$$ in fees to jump through the hoops to make the place you want to rent WAY more complicated than it needs to be …


Government, especially municipal governments (SLO city, anyone???) created and implemented by people who think they are smarter and have better taste than thee and me and for whom “live and let live” flies a mile over egotistic heads, is the reason.


9

Would edit it to read “excessive government.” Government when it is a servant is great. But a large part of the reason there’s so much homelessness is because municipal governments in so many places, not to mention county and state at times as well, are the masters and WE are the servants. It’s backwards and that’s a big part of why there’s so much homelessness — and ANOTHER thing, how many of those new “jobs” are created by government, in other words the salaries being paid by force by you and me? That means that it’s like bailing water out of one end of the swimming pool and dumping it in on the other end and claiming you’re filling the pool. So in the LONG run, new “jobs” in the government sector ultimately do ZERO for our economy.


The ONLY jobs that will help the real situation here, are jobs, employment, in the private sector. Again, government makes it very very expensive and complicated to employ anyone. Try it sometime.


7

You made some good points and I’m anti-liberal so that’s something. It’s true the government makes it very difficult for small business to exist. Everything is centered around the large power consolidators, the large corporations. But at the same time small businesses won’t save us from what’s coming either.

Both revolutionaries, Mao Zedong and George Washington, said something similar to ‘Government is not reason, it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master’ (I’m paraphrasing)


-2

Actually California is producing private sector jobs…in record numbers. In fact, California has created well over a million new private sector jobs in the last five years, up 2.1%, shattering records each month. Although government jobs are also up, they have grown more slowly, with about 36,000 created in the last five years, up 1.5%.


https://www.ocregister.com/2018/09/27/californias-97-month-streak-of-employment-gains-creates-2-91-million-jobs/


1

You’re one of those free market fundamentalists I see


0

It only took two and a half years but Obama’s policies have finally taken effect!


-8

Ha ha ha!!! Yeah, right!!!! {^) Good one!!!

Obama!!! {^) No better ‘n Trump, no better ‘n Hillary. Just another tyrant in charge of “helpful” government using our labor to pay for its tyranny.


-2

My sarcasm is too subtle I guess…


3

Hey, sarcasm!!!


5