Solano County’s still-struggling economy continued to show strength in November as unemployment fell to 10.6 percent, just below the 10.9 percent rate statewide.
State officials said unemployment in Solano was well below the 12.1 percent predicted last year.
“This is primarily due to gains in the trade, transportation and utilities sector and a better-than-average performance — a smaller than usual decline — in the leisure and hospitality and other services (sector),” Ruth Kavanaugh, a state labor analyst, told the Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper.
The national unemployment rate was 8.2 percent in November, the newspaper said.
Four hundred more people were employed in Solano County this year over last year, an increase of .3 percent.
Kavanaugh said the increase represented “a milestone” because trade and transportation jobs had fallen for 16 straight months.
The latest unemployment numbers were released Dec. 16 by the state Employment Development Department in San Francisco.
The report also showed that Vallejo has the highest unemployment rate of all Solano cities at 13 percent, and Benicia the lowest at 6.6 percent, the newspaper said.
