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According to the Employment Development Department’s latest estimates, San Diego’s year-over-year rate of job losses slowed for the first time in 2009. The region’s employment decreased by 55,600 jobs between August 2008 and August 2009, a decline of 4.3 percent.
That is good news — if the latest numbers turn out to provide an accurate picture of San Diego’s employment situation.
The numbers that comes from the EDD each month are estimates that are subject to future revisions. The reason I note this is that the apparent improvement between the July and August figures resulted from a downward revision in July’s original employment number. The report that came out last month estimated a year-over-year loss of 55,100 jobs in July, while the latest EDD release revised July’s loss to 57,300 jobs. So August’s seemingly improved loss of 55,600 jobs is better than the revised July figure but worse than the original estimate.
We will only know if August was actually an improvement if the August numbers are not themselves subject to a big downward revision as happened with the July figures.
But at least the initial estimate shows an improvement. That hasn’t happened this year until now.
The unemployment rate was revised upward for July but estimated to have held steady in August at 10.4 percent.
San Diego unemployment continues to fare better than California (12.1 percent) but worse than the nation as a whole (9.6 percent).