County jobless rate improves

Sonoma County's jobless rate dipped to 4.9 percent in April, with monthly gains in retail trade, tourism, manufacturing and business services, state labor analysts said Friday.

The county's employment picture typically improves between March and April, according to economic observers.

"There's a little bit of a spring bounce," said Ben Stone, director of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

State figures showed 1,400 more people held jobs in Sonoma County than were employed in March, when the revised jobless rate was 5.3 percent.

However, job growth slowed for the second straight month and unemployment has jumped sharply over the past year. In April 2007, the jobless rate stood at 4.1 percent.

Construction and finance showed year-over-year job declines, reflecting the housing market's meltdown. Government employment also is down from last year, as public agencies tighten their belts.

Statewide, unemployment was 6.1 percent in April, while the U.S. jobless rate was 4.8 percent.

There is demand for certain kinds of workers in Sonoma County, said David Ohman, Santa Rosa branch manager for Manpower Inc., an employment services provider.

Medical device production and software engineering are on the rise, he said, while other types of manufacturing are slow.

"It's a mixed bag," he said. "It depends on the sector you're looking at."

Sonoma County's spring hiring rebound doesn't seem as strong as it has been in past years, said Mary Lynn Bartholomew, regional director of Spherion, a recruiting and staffing agency in Santa Rosa. Still, some jobs in light industry are hard to fill, she said.

"We're still in a challenging recruiting market," she said.

Unemployment rose during the first three months of 2008, hitting 5 percent or higher in January, February and March.

The 5.3 percent rate for March was the highest mark for that month since 2004.

While the job market improved in April, it's still not close to 2007, when average monthly unemployment was 4.4 percent.

"It could be an indication that things are starting to turn around, but I don't see a huge bump yet," said Craig Nelson, a vice president with the Nelson Family of Companies, a Sonoma-based group of staffing management services. "We have so many more candidates than job orders."

Construction employment was down 7 percent from a year ago, while financial jobs, including real estate and mortgage loans, were down 4 percent.

Government employment was down more than 1 percent from April 2007.

Retail was up 4 percent, while business services, health care and manufacturing all rose 2 percent year-over-year.

In Mendocino County, the April jobless rate was 6.6 percent, compared with 7.5 percent in March and 5.7 percent a year ago.

Unemployment in Lake County was 9.4 percent, down from 10.2 percent in March but above the year-ago rate of 8.2 percent.