San Diego County unemployment rate down last month

SAN DIEGO - The unemployment rate last month in San Diego County was 5.3 percent, down from 5.8 percent in January and well below the 7.1 percent recorded in February of last year, the state Employment Development

Department announced today.

Those figures compare with a statewide unemployment rate in February that was 6.8 percent, and a 5.8 percent nationwide rate for the same time period. Neither figure is seasonally adjusted.

In San Diego County, 2,600 new local and state government sector positions were added last month, as were 1,400 leisure and hospitality jobs, 1,200 in educational and health services and another 900 jobs in the financial

services industry, according to the EDD.

The professional and business services, information and manufacturing sectors also saw gains.

``The San Diego region continues to outpace the state and the nation in job growth and unemployment,'' said Mike Combs, research director at the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation. ``Even better, our growth is being driven by our traded sectors, such as ship building, scientific R&D and tourism.''

The EDD reported that around 400 construction jobs were lost last month.

About 100 trade, transportation and utilities positions were also eliminated.

Over the past year, 39,700 nonfarm jobs were added in the county. Of that, 8,800 jobs were filled in the professional and business services sector, along with 8,200 in leisure and hospitality, 6,900 in education and health

services and 4,000 in government, the agency said.

``The San Diego regional economy continues to hum along at a steady pace,'' said Phil Blair, CEO of the Manpower employment agency. ``The unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in nearly seven years while we continue to add good jobs in our innovation and building industries each year. There are plenty of reasons to remain optimistic about 2015.''

About 83,000 San Diego County residents were unemployed in February out of a civilian workforce of more than 1.55 million, down 7.6 percent from January's revised unemployment figure of 89,800, according to the EDD. Last

month's unemployment numbers were also 24.3 percent lower than during the same time period in 2014.