Long Beach’s unemployment rate improved slightly, but still severely lags the rest of Los Angeles County, the state and the nation, according to the latest data released by the Economic Development Department.
The city’s unemployment rate fell in August to 14.2% from 14.6% in July. The area’s 14.5% rate shows 34,000 people in the city who are officially recorded as unemployed, the EDD report shows.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Los Angeles County rose in August to 12.6% from 12.4% in July, and is now a half-a-percent above the 12.1% rate a year ago. For the nation the rate was 9.6% in August 2010, down slightly from 9.7% a year ago.
California’s unemployment rate was 12.4%, according to the report.
Total nonfarm employment fell by 12,800 jobs, but the government sector has the largest decline over the month, down 8,100 jobs, according to the EDD report. Manufacturing and information were among the sectors to see the biggest job losses, while construction saw the largest employment gain, adding 2,400 jobs for the month. Despite the job losses for the month in the information sector, information jobs were up by 20,000-plus jobs from last year, the EDD report shows. “Within information, motion picture and sound recording gained 18,000 jobs, information residual added 6,100 jobs, and internet service providers, web portals and data processing increased by 200 jobs,” the EDD report states.
Leisure and hospitality, another important sector for Long Beach, saw an increase of 3,600 jobs for the year countywide.
On another economic front, the Port of Long Beach reported last week that monthly container cargo count at the port reached the highest levels in nearly three years, with to 611,002 twenty-foot equivalent container units moved in August. That’s nearly a 24% increase from August, 2009. “Imports were up 24.5% to 311,240 TEUs, the highest number since November 2007 and near the peak levels reached that year. Exports were down 3.5% to 126,039 TEUs compared to August 2009 and empty container moves were up 54% to 173,723 TEUs. Empty containers are mostly bound overseas for refilling,” according to a port report.A total of 763,837 containers moved through the Port of Los Angeles port in August, and that was the highest monthly total since August 2006, according to numbers released by the Port of L.A.
Hubert Wiesenmaier, executive director of the American Import Shippers Association Inc., told Fox Business in a story that the figures indicate an improved back-to-school and preholiday shipping season. “So far it’s good news, but a lot of people, myself included, would like to see a longer timeframe to see that this trend is continuing,” Wiesenmaier said.