Currently
48°
Cloudy

Advertisement





News

CLASSIFIEDS


Advertisement


Free Ad

Place an ad
in print and online, 24/7 for free, select the Clean Sweep option. Unable to submit Real Estate, Services, and Business Investements at this time.

Get a Subscription


Map the Valley


Subscriber/
Reader Services

Subscribe Now
Contact Customer Service



County’s jobless rate jumps to 10.9 percent

Kings County's unemployment rate in October catapulted nearly 3 percent higher than a year ago, according to a state agency. The county's jobless rate skyrocketed to 10.9 percent, a sharp uptick from last year's 8 percent, the state's employment development department announced on Friday. That makes Kings County's with among the state's highest jobless rates, following the lead of many other rural counties, many of which are in the Central Valley.

Among the hardest-hit industries in Kings County this past year are retail and construction amid possibly the worst financial crises since the Great Depression.

More than most states, California has been battered by a particularly nasty real estate market, with home prices sliding by more than a third in much of the state. Lower home prices have forced many to walk away from their homes, increasing the foreclosure rate in the county. That in turn sends ripples to other homes by lowering prices.

"Most are selling homes because they have to," said Shane Davis, a real estate agent from Help-U-Sell Real Estate of Hanford. "Recreational selling is not existent."

As a result, customers are reluctant to buy homes they know might tumble further and purchase items in stores with lower equity, experts say.

"People are not buying homes," said Sheila Urdesich, a labor consultant for the state's employment development department. "So the slow construction market isn't a surprise."

Indeed, the county's construction and mining industry slashed 13.3 percent of its workforce compared with one year ago, according to the employment development department.

The county's retail industry cut 7.1 percent of its workforce during the same time period.

"We can't pick up the newspaper without seeing retail companies going under," Urdesich said. "So many companies are struggling to stay afloat."

Kings County's unemployment rate is much higher than the state's 8 percent. Experts say Valley counties have always had higher unemployment rates than major urban areas like Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area because of the reliance on fewer industries.

"We don't have the variety of industries in the Valley," Urdesich said. "When times are tough, we don't have the diversity of jobs to fall back on."

Still, Kings County has fared better than some of the surrounding Valley counties. For example, Fresno County has an unemployment rate of 11.4 percent, and Tulare County has an unemployment rate of 11.8 percent.

"We have a significant government employment with prisons, schools and the civilian portion at the Lemoore Naval Air Station," said John Lehn, president of Kings County Economic Development Corporation. "Such employment will typically help Kings County out more."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2423.

(Nov. 22, 2008)

POST A COMMENT

 

Hanfordsentinel.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed, particularly if they are posted after normal office hours.

We reserve the right to remove comments in total that violate our code of conduct. If you want to report a violation, please e-mail editor@HanfordSentinel.com

For more information please read our Terms of use, and Rules of the Road.

 


Please log in to post comments
*Member ID:
*Password:
  Forgot Your Password?
 
If you don't have an account you can create one for free by clicking the link below.
CREATE ACCOUNT
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the views of the Hanford Sentinel




Advertisement


HOT TOPICS

> More Hot Topics


SENTINEL BLOGS

Going All-in by Richard de Give

Shout-outs for the Bullpups!

Thought we’d change things up a little bit to let all of you in cyberland send your best wishes to Hanford High’s football team as it gets ready for Friday’s Central Section Division III championship game. The Bullpups (12-1) are in the title game for the first time since 1982, and this Friday’s title game [...]

Daydream Island by Shannon Milliken

38 Things

I know, I know. It’s been a long time. But I’m back on the blogs again and thanks to my coverage of education I’ve got something to say in light of tomorrow’s holiday. (haha, I rhyme, and get ready, because this is going to be cheesy). So, in school, the teachers typically have their students write [...]

Sentinel Online by Josh Parrish

Sentinel Photo Galleries

You might have noticed we just launched our new photo gallery section.  Not only will you get to sift through multiple new galleries every week from our excellent photographers, Apolinar Fonseca and Gary Feinstein, but you will be able to look at local readers’ photos as well. Enthusiasts, parents with a camera, or anyone else can [...]

Going All-in by Richard de Give

Fearful Football Forecast: Week 12

Are some of these leagues getting so predictable that even I can predict them right? I was just doing last week’s totals and can’t believe I again nailed just about all of them. The one miss, the Cowboys, of course. I generally haven’t fared well in these things at other papers, seriously! 13-1 again, now [...]

Publisher's Desk by Randy Rickman

How Obama Got Elected

We have all heard about media bias and its alleged effect on the outcome of the recent election. This topic was brought up in another blog community and we discussed it to death. One of my colleagues sent me a link to a website that features a video taped on election day. The video features twelve Obama voters that were [...]

> More Blogs


MORE LOCAL NEWS

Lemoore:

Selma:

Kingsburg:



EMAIL UPDATES

Sign up today to get all your local headlines delivered to your home or work e-mail address, so you don't miss the latest in breaking and local news.
E-Mail:
Daily News Updates
Breaking News Alerts