Shasta jobless rate at 16-year high

Shasta County's unemployment rate spiked to a 16-year high in January, the state reported Thursday.

Driven by continued job losses in the construction industry, Shasta's unemployment rate in January was 15.2 percent, nearly 5 percentage points higher than in January 2008, when it registered 10.3 percent, and up from December's 12.4 percent.

It was the highest for any month since January 1993's 15.9 percent. Before that, the highest unemployment rate for a January was in 1985, when it hit 17.2 percent.

Thursday's grim jobs news for Shasta County was released about a week after the state reported California's January unemployment rate was 10.6 percent, the first time since 1983 the rate surpassed 10 percent.

The nation's jobless rate in January was 8.5 percent.

State statistics showed that 2,600 people worked in construction in Shasta County in January, down from 2,700 in December. There were 700 fewer people working construction in Shasta County in January 2009 than in January 2008.

The county also saw month-to-month job losses in trade and transportation (700), retail (600), general merchandise stores (300), and professional and business services (200), among others.

Shasta County's unemployment numbers have been resembling the numbers of the early to mid-1990s for months.

"What you had in the mid-'90s was a slowdown in the housing market; it was the last bubble and it started to burst in 1990," said David Gallo, a professor of economics at Chico State University.

But Gallo pointed out that the dire numbers have as much to do with Shasta County's labor force growing as they do with people losing their jobs.

"Take July 2008 to January (2009) - you gained 4,000 in the labor force," Gallo said. "At the same time, the number of job losses from July to January is only 800. ... What you got is people moving into Shasta County looking for jobs, or people looking for second jobs because they want to hold on to their house."

Meanwhile, the number of people who filed for unemployment in Shasta County in January was 4,600, a 19.7 percent increase over December and a 54.4 percent jump from January 2008.