Riverside County Unemployment Virtually Unchanged

Despite payroll gains across most sectors of the Inland Empire economy, Riverside County’s unemployment rate was unchanged last month at 14.6 percent, state officials reported today.

The county’s non-seasonally-adjusted jobless rate in November, based on preliminary estimates, was the same as October — and the same level recorded a year ago, according to the California Economic Development Department.

An estimated 133,200 county residents were of work last month, compared to 133,400 in October, the figures showed.

The combined unemployment rate for Riverside and San Bernardino counties in November was 14.3 percent, up from 14.2 percent the prior month.

Bi-county data showed every sector of the Inland Empire economy — except for construction and manufacturing — added jobs in November.

The most notable growth was in retail trade, where some 4,000 new positions were created as brick-and-mortar stores beefed up payrolls in time for the Christmas shopping blitz.

The leisure and hospitality industry added 1,600 jobs, with another 1,100 in the professional and business services sector, according to the EDD. The public sector added 1,400 jobs, mainly in local education, while agricultural hiring continued with a 500-job increase in the farm sector.

Roughly 1,300 jobs were cut in the construction and manufacturing sectors.

According to the EDD, most of the payroll expansion was blunted by an increase in the Inland Empire’s available labor pool. Between October and November, Riverside County’s civilian workforce grew by 1,500 and San Bernardino’s by 3,800.

The total size of the civilian labor force in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in November was 1,774,900, with 253,400 unemployed.

The state’s jobless rate was 12.4 percent, and the national rate was 9.8 percent.