Employment surged in Santa Clara and surroundin surgedg counties

Area employment surges
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - 1:37 PM PST Friday, March 2, 2007

Employment surged in Santa Clara and surrounding counties between January 2006 and January 2007, according to a report released today by the state Economic Development Department.

In Santa Clara County, where the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6 percent from 4.8 percent a year ago, the number of employed rose about 2.7 percent to 807,600.

The lowest unemployment rate in the area was reported in San Mateo County, where the number of jobs grew by 2.6 percent.

The highest local joblessness was reported in Monterey County, where the rate rose to 10.8 percent from 10.7 percent a year ago. The number of jobs there grew 1.3 percent to 177,000.

California's jobless rate was unchanged year-to-year at 5.3 percent. The number of people working in the state grew by 1.6 percent to 17.1 million.

Other Bay Area counties also reported the following unemployment rates and job gains over the past year:

* Santa Cruz: 7.5 percent unemployment despite a 3.6 percent increase in jobs to 136,100.
* San Benito: 8.4 percent unemployment rate and a 3 percent increase in jobs to 23,600.
* Alameda: 4.6 percent unemployment and 2 percent job increase to 719,500.
* Contra Costa: 4.5 percent unemployment and a 2 percent job gain to 501,000