SLO County sees unemployment rate drop

January 24, 2023

By KAREN VELIE

Unemployment tumbled in San Luis Obispo County in December even though the region lost about 200 new jobs during the past month, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

A 700 person reduction in the workforce drove the unemployment rate down to 2.4% in December, from 2.8% in November. In Dec. 2021, the jobless rate was 3.3%.

Over the past month, the largest employment increases were seen in the retail trade sector, which added 300 new jobs, primarily related to holiday shopping.

San Luis Obispo County is ranked fifth out of 58 California counties for lower numbers of unemployed workers. SLO County’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average of 3.3% and the state’s 3.7% rate.

In California, San Mateo at 1.9% has the lowest unemployment rate and Imperial County comes in on the bottom with an unemployment rate of 14.8%.


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Are the homeless counted as unemployed?, if they are counted in a census then seems they should be figured into unemployment rate.


One obvious factor from lowest to highest unemployed is that San Mateo County is probably one of the most expensive place to live and the Imperial County is probably at the lowest end, thus work or be unhoused. I know that in San Mateo County, it is very common for two incomes plus the income from another who shares the home. You’ll see the streets and driveways filled with parked cars at night because everyone is at work during the day.


Thats good, but the numbers were mostly season hires as the article states. Even with that said, there’s work out there for people. If you’re not working, it’s probably because you don’t want to.