Experts See Silver Lining in Unemployment Report

While the latest unemployment reports show a slight increase, experts say there’s a silver lining in the june numbers for Santa Barbara County.”It takes a very long time to recover,” says Raymond McDonald, the Executive Director with the Workforce Investment Board, “The economy is still slowly improving from the very deep recession we were in in 2009.”The numbers were up slightly in June from the previous month, from 7.4 to 7.9 percent. But according to California’s Employment Development Department, that’s normal for this time of year, as employees in local education positions are often let go for the Summer.According to the report, areas that have experienced growth in Santa Barbara County, include leisure and hospitality, construction, financial activities, and professional services, among others.McDonald says the numbers are encouraging, “A great improvement from a year ago.”Last year at this time, the unemployment rate within the county was at nearly nine percent. There are other tell tale signs that the job market is on its way up. One sector that has seen a significant spike over the past year is business services, which includes temporary jobs.”Temporary jobs are generally the first ones to come back, and they’re a bell weather for future long term permanent employment.” To see the report, go to: http://www.calmis.ca.gov/htmlfile/county/sbarb.htm