Inland region adds jobs, unemployment still above 5 percent

The Inland Empire recorded a 5.1 percent unemployment rate in November, unchanged from the previous month but one point higher than the estimate made one year ago, according to data released this month.

An estimated 14,000 non-agricultural jobs were added in Riverside and San Bernardino counties between October and November – from 1,705,000 to 1,719,000 – the state Employment Development Department reported Dec. 22.

Trade, transportation, and utilities gained the most jobs month over month adding 11,200 positions. Transportation-warehousing and utilities-retail both added 5,600 jobs, while wholesale trade did not change.

Government added 16,000 between October and November, almost all of them local positions. Construction lost 1,800 jobs during that time, the largest decline of any Inland sector that time, according to the department.

The Inland region added about 30,000 non-agricultural jobs between November 2022 and last month, an increase of 1.8 percent.

California’s unemployment rate in October was 4.9, while the U.S. jobless rate was 3.5 percent. Unlike the Inland Empire data, those numbers were not seasonally adjusted.