California companies are hiring again, adding jobs across a variety of sectors and pushing down unemployment rates from record-high levels, reports issued Friday show.
Los Angeles County's jobless rate edged down to 12.9 percent in January from a record 13 percent in December, said the California Employment Development Department. The state's rate slipped to 12.4 percent from 12.5 percent with the net addition of 12,500 jobs, the agency said.
"The economies in many areas of the state are golden again," said Stephen Levy, director and senior economist at the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto.
Los Angeles, for instance, saw a resurgence in international trade, he said, while the technology sector is improving in the Bay Area.
"It's a positive indicator," said economist Brad Kemp, director of regional research at Beacon Economics. "The good news is we're generating jobs and the bad news is we're lagging the U.S. growth."
Nationwide, companies added 222,000 workers in February, and economists say the stronger hiring should endure all year. The unemployment rate sank from 9 percent in January to 8.9 percent, the lowest since April 2009.
Hiring last month was broad - factories, trucking companies, health care providers, construction firms, hotels and restaurants all added jobs.
"Bottom line: The labor market is turning the corner," said Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners,
an economic research firm.Kemp doesn't anticipate a flurry of hiring in California, but he is optimistic about the region's recovery from the recession.
"I don't think we'll see robust acceleration. I don't think we can call anything in 2011 robust but it's growth, period," he said. "And that's something we should all be thankful for."
Especially heartening, Kemp said, was the state's revision of its employment numbers for 2010.
The state previously estimated private-sector employment of 11.5 million in 2010 but that was revised upward by 113,200 jobs. Meanwhile it estimated government employment of 2.5 million and that was revised downward by 51,600 jobs.
EDD spokeswoman Loree Levy said January's report means the state has added jobs for four consecutive months.
"That indicated that the recession is over and the job losses have ended," she said. "It's good to see the unemployment rate go down. We have seen an increase in economic activity but to this point its been a jobless recovery."
January's jobless rate decline was the first for the county 11 months. The last decline for the state came in June.
But the unemployment rate for the state and county has been over 12 percent since the summer of 2009. A year ago, the jobless rate for the state and county stood at 12.3 percent.
That high level of unemployment will likely persist for many more months as disgruntled job seekers filter back into the work force, said Kemp, who predicted the rate will not fall below 10 percent until 2013, he said.
While there is some good news in January's jobs number it probably doesn't seem like it to the 2.25 million Californians collecting unemployment last month. Nearly half - 1 million - have been unemployed 27 weeks or longer, up from 780,000 a year earlier.
But total employment in California reached 13.97 million in January thanks to the additional jobs gained in the annual revision.
Sectors that were big winners included health care, wholesale trade, professional and business services, construction and art, recreation and entertainment.
Losers included government, financial services and education.
And while construction employment was undercounted last year the sector is still struggling. That, combined with persistent problems in the housing and government sectors will combine to make California's jobs recovery sluggish.
"If it weren't for those we would be outpacing the nation" in job growth, Levy said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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