San Diego’s economy is rolling along — as county unemployment percentage improves dramatically!
Well, actually — not.
Here’s the story by the numbers:
- The county unemployment percentage PLUMMETED in December. It dropped from (the revised) 6.9% unemployed in November to December’s 6.4% — a full half percent drop in only one month!!! Yea.
- Only 600 net new jobs were created. That’s a pathetic number in an area bigger than the state of Rhode Island — a county of over 3.1 million people.
- The unemployment percentage drop was almost completely the result of people dropping out of the workforce — 7,800 of the unemployed are no longer seeking employment in December — so they are no longer considered “unemployed.” That number is NOT good.
- Stated differently — only 7.1% of the improved unemployment percentage was the result of more jobs — 92.9% was the result of people giving up seeking San Diego area employment.
BTW, to be defined as “employed,” one has to be working — but not much. Apparently even one hour of paid employment per week defines one as “employed” in the stats. Given the growing trend to hire fewer full-time employees — using part-timers to avoid healthcare costs and fines — our employment picture is likely even worse than these numbers indicate.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jan/25/tp-jobless-rate-falls-to-64-sd-unemployment-drops/