Unemployment up slightly in Valley for October with end of agricultural season

California employers added 31,200 jobs to the state’s economy in October, although the unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent, state officials said Friday.

The Employment Development Department said October marked the fourth straight month that the unemployment rate hasn’t changed. Although job growth has remained fairly strong, employers aren’t creating jobs quickly enough as more Californians enter the labor market. An additional 90,000 state residents entered the labor market in October, according to the EDD.

The unemployment rates in the Northern San Joaquin Valley were mostly up from September but down from October 2015.

In Stanislaus County, the jobless rate was 7.9 percent in October, compared with 7.5 percent in September, but down from 8.6 percent in October 2015. In Merced County, the rate was 8.6 percent in October, 8.2 percent in September and 9.2 percent in October 2015. And in San Joaquin County, the rate was 7.6 percent in October, 7.5 percent in September and 8.1 percent in October 2015.

EDD labor market consultant Nati Martinez said typically the Valley’s unemployment rate rises from September to October as agriculture-dependent jobs wind down with the end of the season.

The Valley added 8,900 jobs in the past year, but 5,900 of them were created in Stanislaus County. Overall, the Valley saw its number of jobs increase 1.7 percent in the past year. Much of the growth came in leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation and utilities; and the public sector.

Across the state, 389,500 Californians have found work in the past year, an increase of 2.4 percent. Unemployment has fallen four-tenths of a percentage point since October 2015, when it was 5.9 percent.

This story was originally published November 18, 2016 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Unemployment up slightly in Valley for October with end of agricultural season."