New Computation Helps Reduce Jobless Rate in Orange County

ANAHEIM — Orange County’s jobless rate for November dropped to 5.6% from October’s 6.6% as 11,000 people were erased from the local labor force tally, in what a state analyst called a statistical glitch.

The big drop is a result of the averaging method used to compute local unemployment figures each month and was repeated in nearly every county in California.

“It’s a one-month anomaly,” said Eleanor Jordan, Orange County labor market analyst for the state Employment Development Department. “We always caution people not to rely on a single month’s figures to predict a trend.”

Still, economists generally expect Orange County’s employment situation to improve. The lower November jobless rate “gives a greater level of confidence to our forecasts,” said Anil Puri, head of the economics department at California State University, Fullerton.

November jobless figures for the state--as well as for Los Angeles County--were released at the beginning of the month.

Except for Los Angeles County, where the jobless rate for November was barely changed at 9.4%, other Southern California counties fared as well as or better than Orange County.

The unemployment rate in San Diego County fell to 7.2%, from 8.5% in October; Riverside County’s double-digit jobless rate plunged nearly 2 full points to 11.8%, from October’s 13.6%, and San Bernardino County’s rate was lopped to 9.2% from 10.7%.

The statewide jobless rate for November--released earlier in December--was 8.6%, down from 9.4% in October.