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Wednesday, Mar 27, 2024
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San Diego Unemployment Holds Steady; Still Less Than Either State or Nation

San Diego Unemployment Holds Steady; Still Less Than Either State or Nation

BY BRAD GRAVES

San Diego County’s unemployment rate stayed at 4.5 percent in July, unchanged from June, the state Employment Development Department reported.

Unemployment here was lower than both the state and the nation. California had an unadjusted unemployment rate of 6.9 percent in July. Nationally, unemployment stood at 6.3 percent.

The state employment agency reported San Diego County lost 10,100 jobs between June and July.

A good deal of that loss was in the schools. The category of “local government education” slipped by 6,600 jobs, to 71,700, in a month’s time.

Unemployment last month was lower than it was in July 2002, when it stood at 4.7 percent.

Construction has put people to work this summer. But telecom has not.

There were 4,900 more construction jobs in San Diego County than there were in July 2002. The majority of the increase came in specialty trade contracting.

Telecom jobs were down year-over-year. The industry supported 16,400 jobs in July 2002, but 14,900 people in July 2003.

Year-over-year losses came in manufacturing, where there were 2,300 fewer jobs.

Both visitors and homebodies contributed to job growth.

Leisure and hospitality gained 3,900 jobs between July 2002 and July 2003, when the sector employed 138,700 people.

Between July 2002 and July 2003, retail employment had increased by 3,000 jobs. There was an 11 percent growth in building material and garden equipment stores, which employed 11,200 people last month.

Year-over-year, farm employment in San Diego County dropped by 500 people to 10,700.

Federal government employment stood at 39,800 people in July 2002 and July 2003. A subcategory, the Department of Defense, employed 20,000 people here in July 2003, up from 19,800 in July 2002.

Jobs in warehousing and storage posted a 20 percent decline year-over-year, ending up at 5,100.

There were 1,237,700 jobs in the county during July.

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