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Employment News: Tourism dominates Napa job projections

ALSO: SITE ALLOWS EMPLOYEES TO COMMENT ON EMPLOYERS, REVIEW WORKPLACE

Recent state occupational growth projections clearly confirm Napa’s increasingly dynamic hospitality market.

Though Napa’s fastest-growing occupations list has some similarities to Sonoma, Marin and Solano, the top 50 jobs are in many cases hospitality oriented.

The lists released by the California Employment Development Department said hotel, motel and resort desk clerk jobs are the fifth fastest-growing category in Napa County, expected to increase by about 30 percent. Other categories high on the list include chauffeurs, janitorial managers, maids and housekeepers, food preparation workers, groundskeepers, food service workers, cooks, bartenders and chefs.

Topping all area lists were medical assistants, registered nurses and veterinary workers. In the San Francisco-Marin area, medical scientists topped the list with an expected growth of 69 percent between 2004 and 2014.

Network systems and data communication analysts will be needed in the highest numbers in Sonoma, with an expected growth of 53 percent, and in Solano respiratory therapists will see the largest increase of 50 percent.

While tourism is a growing sector in Sonoma County’s economy, the fastest-growing jobs are spread across a broad array of technical and service jobs. Two jobs in the top 50 were tourism oriented, recreation attendants and massage therapists.

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All North Bay counties recorded an increase in their jobless rates in June, but Solano was again the lone county that did not add jobs, shedding about 2,300 and posting its fourth consecutive decline.

Most of the losses, about 2,000, occurred in construction, followed by manufacturing, which lost 600, according to the EDD.

The leisure and hospitality, government and other services sectors were the only industries that recorded growth in Solano in June. The unemployment rate increased to 6.9 percent, up from 5.3 percent in 2007.

Sonoma County had the largest increase in jobs during the same period, adding a total of 800 new positions, but it was not entirely without losses. Construction dropped about 1,000, and 800 positions were lost in services, including finance.

Trade, transportation and utilities industries added about 1,000 jobs in June, and education and health services added 400. Sonoma County’s jobless rate reached 5.6 percent last month, up from 4.4 percent a year ago. The recent number is the highest in at least two years.

Napa recorded the lowest unemployment rate at 4.9 percent, but the number is still higher than a year ago at 3.8 percent. Napa reported no job growth for the first time in several months, taking the biggest hits in mining and construction, which lost 600 jobs. Financial and professional services added 600 jobs, and leisure and hospitality added 200.

Unemployment in Marin increased to 4.6 percent in June from 4.2 percent the previous month. Industry specific numbers are not available. All counties were lower than the state average unemployment rate of 7 percent, and most were lower than the national average of 5.7 percent.

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Sausalito-based Glassdoor.com is giving employees the chance to praise or dish the dirt on their employers on the forum-like Web site launched earlier this summer.

“Work matters a great deal to our daily lives, yet detailed information about jobs and employers is still hard to find. We’ve built Glassdoor to make it easier for anyone to peek inside the walls of a prospective employer – or even the next cubicle – to get information that will foster more productive conversations and lead to better career decisions,” said Robert Hohman, co-founder and chief executive officer of Glassdoor.com.

Similar to employee-review site Vault.com of New York, the site allows staff to anonymously post information about their employers including salary, company culture, reviews of top executives and benefits.

Posters are not required to provide their name, but Glassdoor flags posts if one computer or login reviews multiple companies. Browsers only gain access to other company reviews after submitting their own survey. The reviews include an overall point rating between zero and five, a top executive approval rating and then anecdotal reviews with “pros” and “cons” spaces.

Currently, the site has about 40,000 profiles. Unique to Vault.com, the company also independently sends surveys to company employees, and analysts compare the data to find trend commonalities.

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Submit items for this column to Ashley Furness at 707-521-4257, afurness@busjrnl.com or fax 707-521-5292.