San Benito County’s unemployment rate dropped by one percent
from May to June, as the state and national jobless rates
jumped.
San Benito County’s unemployment rate dropped by one percent from May to June, as the state and national jobless rates jumped.
The local unemployment rate was 15.8 percent in June, according to the California Employment Development Department. That was down from 16.8 percent in May and slightly higher than the 15.7 rate in June of last year.
California’s jobless number ticked up a tenth of a point to 11.8 percent in June, while the U.S. rate increased to 9.2 percent.
Approximately 37,000 fewer Californians held job last month than in May, according to the report, which pegged the number of unemployed people in the state at more than 2.1 million in June.
A recent Gallup poll shows that in late June, 18.3 percent of the U.S. population is underemployed, a combination of people who are unemployed or employed part-time but wanting full-time work.
The number of underemployed is down from 19.2 percent in May.
Regardless of jobless rate fluctuations, the number of underemployed workers has hovered around twice the amount of unemployed in the United States.
With the slow economy, many have given up looking for work and are no longer included in the jobless rate, so the number of unemployed could be higher.
When the job market turns around, those who have stopped looking for work could re-enter the market, keeping the unemployment rate up despite an improved economy, said Jeff Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
Jobless numbers have improved in some areas, but that could be attributed to fewer people looking for work.
MCT News contributed to this report.
