I.E. strong in jobs report

Counties account for 26 percent of all new jobs in state

Unemployment was up in California in June 2007, but the job picture was much stronger locally.

So much stronger, in fact, that at least one economist found the numbers almost too good to be true.

Redlands-based John Husing, after seeing that San Bernardino County and Riverside County had gained 44,500 jobs over the last 12 months, said he hoped the numbers were real.

"These numbers are extraordinary," Husing said. "They certainly fly in the face of what we expected to see."

Indeed, the two Inland Empire counties accounted for 26 percent of all the new jobs in California and 45 percent of the jobs created in the Southland.

By contrast, San Diego County gained only 6,400 jobs and Orange County added only 4,300 in the last year.

"We are seeing incredibly strong growth in this area," Husing said. "Even the increase in the unemployment rate might be partly due to the slow job growth in the coastal counties."

The jobless rate was 5.4 percent in San Bernardino County in June and 5.7 percent in Riverside. Husing pointed out that unemployment always increases in June, due largely to kids out of school for the summer looking for jobs.

The strongest sectors locally were leisure & hospitality (6,800 jobs), logistics (6,300), retail trade (5,000), health care (4,700), local government (4,100) and professional, scientific, technical and management (3,700).

But the biggest surprises were probably in construction and manufacturing, where the Inland Empire added 1,600 and 1,100 jobs respectively in a year when the rest of the state was losing jobs in the same sectors.

"Construction was a big drag on job creation statewide," said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the L.A. County Economic Development Corp. "San Diego County alone lost 7,400 construction jobs and L.A. County lost too. But not Riverside and San Bernardino."

Kyser said the job report was mixed, and that some people would be seriously bothered by the fact that California had created only 400 net jobs from May to June.

"The economy is simmering down," he said.

In addition to weakness in the housing market that caused a temporary loss of jobs, the collapse of the subprime mortgage market hit Orange County particularly hard.

"Orange County was down 5,100 jobs year over year in the financial and insurance sector," Kyser said. "Those are jobs that will never come back."