Orange County Jobless Rate Fell to 4.1% in December

Spurred by holiday retail hiring, Orange County’s December unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, its lowest level in four years, setting the stage for what economists say should be moderate job growth in 1995.

The report, issued Friday by the state Employment Development Department, does not show the effects of the county’s Dec. 6 bankruptcy filing because the resulting layoffs of 400 county workers were not made until January.

Economists have said, however, that they do not expect that financial crisis to derail job growth for 1995. “It’s still a pretty good economy,” said Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University in Orange.

The December report also indicates that Orange County is far better off than its neighbors. In Los Angeles County, for example, the December unemployment rate was 8.1%. The statewide average was 7.0%.

The most important news in the December report, Adibi said, is that it shows the first growth in the county’s manufacturing employment since 1989. “Those are permanent jobs,” he said, “and that is heartening news.”

For 1995, Chapman’s Center for Economic Research had predicted that Orange County employers would create 21,000 jobs. Now, because of the chilling effect of the bankruptcy filing, that forecast has been reduced to 17,000 new jobs, Adibi said.

Most of the hiring will be spurred by revitalized home construction, increased production of civilian electronic equipment and continued hiring in the service sector, which includes foreign trade, health and medicine, and business services such as banking, according to Chapman economists.

For Los Angeles County, Chapman is projecting 17,600 new jobs this year, contrasted with a net loss of 35,700 jobs in preliminary reports for 1994.