In data prepared exclusively for www.OC180NEWS.com Orange County emerged as the county which created the most jobs so far this year of all California counties. In our exclusive analysis of California’s Employment Development Department May job data, OC shot past Los Angeles County, which held the top spot through April.
As of the end of April, OC was second behind LA, but for May, LA actually lost jobs, while OC continued a steady trend of job growth. Thus, as of the end of May, according to the EDD’s household survey, OC had 35,700 more people working than as of last December. With 1,455,300 working people in OC during May, it was the highest level of employment since last April when there were 1,472,000 people with jobs in OC.
For just the month of May, OC added 4,500 new jobs, compared to Los Angeles County which lost a whopping 38,600 jobs during the month. Although LA County gained jobs in February, March, and April, the losses in May were enough to make the year to date total a negative4, 600.
Although Orange County is now the highest ranked job creating county for the year to date numbers, OC maintained the number 6th slot for the month of May. The top job creator for May was San Diego which saw employment increase by 8,800 new jobs during May. San Joaquin County was close behind San Diego at the number two spot for May with 8,100 new jobs.
Rounding out the top six job creators for May are Tulare, at 6,100, Monterey, 5,800, and Fresno at 4,900. The only one of these six winners for May which is not in the year to date top six is Tulare, which was replaced by Ventura.
Ventura added only 900 jobs in May, but thanks to stronger growth earlier in the year, they remain in the top six year to date at number 6 with total growth of 11,900.
San Diego County is nipping at OC’s heals from the number two spot with 27,000 year to date new jobs. Monterey holds the third slot with 22,500 new jobs, with FresnoIn fourth at 14,600, and San Joaquin next at 12,100.
At the bottom of the rankings for May is Los Angeles, with their job losses of 38,600. This number is huge compared to any other California county, but compared to the Los Angeles job market, it is more statistical noise than anything else. The next biggest job loser was Mono County with losses of 1,000 jobs. Beside Mono and LA counties, there were only three other counties with job losses during May, and these were all in amounts of less than 100. As was the case last month, there are a number of relatively small counties (14) with very little changes in their employment.
For the year to date numbers, five California counties are still reporting negative growth. In addition to LA, which has the distinction of being at the bottom of both the year to date and the month of May lists, the next biggest year to date job loser is Kern at negative 3,400. But, with its second consecutive month of solid job growth, Kern is poised to move into the positive year to date list in a month or two.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading …
About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
In 
