Unemployment Rose to 10.5 Percent in June

San Diego County’s unemployment rate rose in June to 10.5 percent, according to state numbers released today, an increase from 10.1 percent in May and 10 percent a year ago.

June’s numbers reflected the federal government’s layoff of temporary Census workers. The county lost 3,500 federal government jobs last month, the biggest decline of any sector between May and June.

Four industries showed job growth between May and June including leisure and hospitality and business services.

You can read the whole report, including a graph showing the unemployment rate back to July 2008, here.

In another report released today, local economist Kelly Cunningham said San Diego’s economic recovery has been lukewarm at best. He said he’s not predicting a “double dip” recession, where the economy would crash again, but growth will be slow.

Even though the economy’s been gaining jobs and showing some other signs of improvement in recent months, it’s too early to label this as an “economy in recovery or rebounding,” he said.

Cunningham said because California and the nation will be going through major economic changes for some time, San Diego’s recovery is “likely to be painful and difficult for a number of years.”

He did point out one piece of “relative good news.” This year, San Diego’s job growth, rising home prices and construction activity have outpaced the rest of the state.

But that good news is, again, “relative.”

Here’s Cunningham:

San Diego may well lead California out of the recession, but gains are slow and weak at this point compared with other postrecession recoveries. This leads to our outlook for the local recovery to be sluggish and drawn-out.

Cunningham, who works for the National University System’s Institute for Policy Research, has his full report here.

— KELLY BENNETT