Hollister
– San Benito County unemployment has enjoyed its lowest rates in
recent memory, said Al Martinez, executive director of the
Hollister-based Economic Development Corporation.
Hollister – San Benito County unemployment has enjoyed its lowest rates in recent memory, said Al Martinez, executive director of the Hollister-based Economic Development Corporation.
The county’s low unemployment rates have been helped by California’s statewide trend of a strong job market, Martinez said. California’s unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in October, according to a California Economic Development Department report. San Benito’s was 4.8 percent in October.
“When you look at the unemployment numbers right now in San Benito County and Hollister, they’re some of the lowest ever,” Martinez said. “We’re literally at the point of full employment.”
Jeff Pyle, the City of Hollister economic development manager, said the implosion of the Silicon Valley economy earlier in the decade has affected the county for the past several years since many San Benito residents work there. But California’s economy has remained strong.
“The state is at a low for the last five or six years,” said Pyle of the statewide unemployment rate.
From September to October, the county unemployment rate rose slightly from 4.7 percent to 4.8 percent, according to the EDD report. The county lost 100 people to unemployment but had a net gain of 200 jobs.
The highest unemployment rate for San Benito this decade came in March of 2004 at 13 percent. The unemployment rate passed 10 percent for the first three months of the year from 2002 to 2005, according to the EDD report. The unemployment rate has stayed under 10 percent since April of 2005.
The late-summer and fall months typically have the lowest unemployment rates in San Benito, according to the EDD report. This year the unemployment rate has fluctuated between 4.7 percent and 9.5 percent.
“When you have an agricultural community you tend to get fluctuations,” Pyle said.
As the holidays approach, the confectionery industry needs more hands and as the harvest winds down, farming operations make layoffs, Martinez said.
Many farming operations shift their production to Arizona, Martinez said. The recent Natural Selection layoffs were earlier than normal because of the E. coli outbreak, Martinez said. Of the approximately 165 recent layoffs from Natural Selection, only 20 were in San Benito County, Martinez said.
“Under the normal conditions those people go to Yuma County anyway,” Martinez said.
Of those 20, four have received assistance from the Center for Employment Training in San Jose to change careers, Martinez said.
Many former agriculture workers receive training to become truck drivers or welders, Martinez said. The Center for Employment Training recently received state funding.
“They got $50,000 to train anybody impacted by the layoffs from the spinach thing,” Martinez said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected].
