Humboldt County Unemployment Rate Continues to Rise, Hits 5% in August – Times-Standard

Humboldt County’s unemployment rate continued to rise in August, rising to 5%, up from a revised 4.6% in July.

Randy Weaver, local labor market analyst for the Department of Employment Development, said that’s not unique to Humboldt County — many counties in Northern California have higher unemployment rates.

“I cover nine counties, and every one of those counties saw a slight increase, so it was a widespread trend that wasn’t specific to Humboldt,” he said. “The last time that level was at 5% (in Humboldt County), however, was in October 2021. So it’s been a while since we’ve seen unemployment at this level. The workforce continues to shrink.”

The workforce in Humboldt County continues to shrink this year. In June, the EDD reported that 59,500 were part of the labor force. But the labor force in August is 700 workers less at the number of 58,800 people.

Weaver has regularly mentioned that since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the county’s labor force has struggled to break the 60,000 mark — a goal that appears to be even more distant in August with a shrinking labor economy.

“The workforce in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, was 62,400,” he said. “So Humboldt continues to see labor force issues. It hasn’t recovered to its pre-pandemic size, and since March 2020 the county’s workforce has actually only shrunk by 60,000 twice, but both times it shrank quite quickly.”

Weaver noted that some areas are seeing growth.

“From July to August, the county added 200 jobs, which was positive but modest. Construction added 100, government added 200 jobs … and then there was no change in all other industries,” he said. “So I would say it was kind of a soft month for job growth.”

Among neighboring counties, Humboldt County continues to be one of the leading areas, but Mendocino County’s unemployment rate of 4.6% is higher than the local rate.

The state’s unemployment rate is also 4.6%, according to the EDD.

In August, the unemployment rate in various parts of the county ranged from 0% to 8% in Arcata.

“Arcata and Rio Dell pretty much go back and forth on a regular basis because they have the highest unemployment rates in the county,” Weaver said.

Asked if this was due to the large number of students unable to find employment, he said it was unlikely, but unemployment remained high during the pandemic when many students were living off-site.

“Arcato still had high unemployment (during the pandemic), so I lost a little bit,” he said.

Ruth Schneider can be reached at 707-441-0520.