Yuma jobless rate still climbing

The newest unemployment report had some grim news for Yuma County, with the local jobless rate continuing to climb.

According to monthly report, released Thursday by the Arizona Department of Commerce, Yuma County's unemployment rate for October was 22.8 percent, up from September's 20.7 percent and well above the 19.1 percent in October 2008.

That the area's unemployment continues to deepen is no surprise to John Morales, executive director of Yuma Private Industry Council, which provides job search and training services through its One Stop centers in Yuma and Somerton.

Before the recession, he said, visits were running about 1,100 a month. Since May, there has been a steady increase in the number of people seeking employment assistance, he said. In October, that number reached 2,238 people, "nearly double the number of visits that occurred under normal circumstances."

The one bright spot Morales sees is the plans by three Yuma-area call centers to hire a total of about 300 new employees.

Otherwise, he said, there are few new jobs and a lot of people competing for them. "From our perspective, we're seeing slow hiring activity."

The construction industry has been hit particularly hard, he said. "There's not much going on with construction, either residential or commercial."

Morales said the winter season and holidays will be telling for the economy. "This is the time of year that can make or break businesses. Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) will be a pretty good barometer. If things don't pick up, it will be really difficult for businesses come spring."

Statewide, the new unemployment report provides mixed news about the state of Arizona's economy.

Thursday's figures show the number of people with jobs rose 13,200 between September and October. Jack York, a senior economist with the agency, credited lots of seasonal hiring with the jump.

York noted that this is a marked improvement over a year ago when few companies were bringing on staff for the Christmas season and to deal with the annual flocking of snowbirds to Arizona.

"So I think that's a very optimistic sign,'' he said.

But the seasonally adjusted jobless rate still rose by two-tenths of a point, to 9.3 percent in October.

"The number of jobs is increasing, but not enough to give a job to everyone who's seeking one,'' York explained.

What all that means is that there is no sign that the Arizona economy has bottom. Frank Curtis, the agency's director of data systems, said that even with some companies picking up seasonal help, others continue to lay people off.

The result is that there were 177,600 fewer people working in Arizona last month than the same time a year earlier. That is a drop of 6.8 percent.

Another 2,100 jobs were lost between September and October in the construction industry, bringing year-over-year losses to 42,600. And the industry has lost 45 percent of its workers since its peak in June 2006.

Retail trade, linked to seasonal job growth, did pick up 2,600 workers between September and October. But employment levels here are 20,100 below the prior October.

Similarly, even in the leisure and hospitality industry, the addition of 2,600 jobs still leaves employment there down by nearly 9,000 from a year earlier.

Aside from retail and hospitality, York said there also was relatively strong month-over-month growth in the number of people in employment services. These are people who work temporary jobs.

Some of those may be seasonal. But York said some of those may be the result of companies, uncertain of the future, preferring to hire temporary workers rather than putting someone on their own payroll.

The figures show, though, the rate of job losses appears to be slowing. Curtis noted that Arizona's 0.2 point jump is half the 0.4 point jump in the national rate, which hit 10.2 percent last month. But Curtis was not predicting a turnaround anytime soon.