The State of California Employment Development Department, EDD, reported last Friday the Orange County unemployment rate fell in December to 9.1%, down from 9.6% in November. The rate decreased in Orange County, while it held steady at 12.4% statewide. The number of people working in Orange County, either decreased moderately, or managed a slight increase.

The state calculates the unemployment rates using a federal survey of 5,500 California households. This survey data is collated for county level information based on the location of the household.
According to the survey, in December, there were 1,608,700 people living in Orange County who identified themselves as part of the workforce. In November, the number was 1,619,800. Thus, approximately 11,100 less people considered themselves to be in the workforce in December, then in the previous month.

In addition to people leaving the Orange County workforce between November and December, an additional 7,100 people left the workforce between October and November, and, a total of 36,700 have left since December 2008.

According to the household survey, the number of Orange County residents who worked during December, at 1,461,700, was 2,000 les than in November. Since this decrease was smaller than the decrease in the workforce, the computed unemployment rate dropped. The number of Orange County working people in November was 5,400 less than October and December 2009 was 75,700 less than December 2008.

In addition to the federal survey of households, the State of California conducts a monthly survey of 42,000 California companies to determine the number of Californians working. Since this is a survey of employers, it does not count self-employed workers. Even though this survey excludes self-employed, it is a much larger survey, so the results should be more accurate. The survey of employers provides information about the number of people working, but it does not cover those looking for work. Thus, this survey is not used to determine the unemployment rate.

Contrary to the results from the survey of households, the survey of California based businesses indicated an increase in the number of people working in Orange County during December. The businesses survey reported total Orange County job holders during December were 1,417,600, up by 300 from the November total. Statewide, the number fell by 38,800.

Even though Orange County employment improved slightly during December 2009, it remained 3,700 below the levels of October and 49,300 behind December 2008. One year ago, there were 1,466,900 payroll jobs in Orange County.