North Bay Business Journal

Unemployment rates for North Bay counties were largely unchanged in October from the month before, but Sonoma County continued to lead all of California in job growth, helping the entire North Bay grow by 2.5 percent from the previous October, according to state figures released this morning.

The presidential campaigns for the Democratic and Republican parties are trading barbs over whether the national economy is better or worse off than it was four years ago. How has the North Bay fared?

One measure is the number of jobs. The number of North Bay jobs in all industries from July 2008 through July of this year decreased 4.5 percent for all but Marin County, and by 5.7 percent in Marin through 2011. Yet, since the low point in early 2010, job growth was 5.5 percent both for Marin and other other North Bay counties.

Share your thoughts on this week’s NBBJ Pulse Poll question — “Is the North Bay better off than it was four years ago?” — and leave comments.

Unemployment rates in June increased in Sonoma, Solano, Marin and Napa counties from May and remained the same in Mendocino and Lake Counties, but the number of jobs in the region continued to rise, both from the month before and the previous June, according to state figures released today.

NORTH BAY — Unemployment rates across the North Bay dropped in August, as the start of the school year spurred hiring by the government sector and professional services in some counties enjoyed a rebound in hiring, according to figures releases this morning from the Employment Development Department. However, job gains that had been posted through much of the year stalled during the month.

NORTH BAY — Unemployment rates across the North Bay either remained flat at high levels or inched upward in March, but Sonoma County continued a four-month stretch of substantial year-over-year job growth, reaching 5,000 net new jobs last month, according to state estimates released today.

While the Santa Rosa north corridor real estate market saw an increase in vacancy rates in 2009, during 2010 there was a decrease in the industrial vacancy for the region and office vacancy remained flat.

Napa County employment growth is slowly moving back toward the black, led by a bounce last year in wine and other production hiring.

The chart in a recent post tells the North Bay jobs story, tracking the percent change year-over-year employment in Sonoma County since January 2001. The most encouraging news is that for the first time since January 2008, Sonoma County had more jobs in December than the previous year.