Cautious optimism for some parts of job market

Cautious optimism for some parts of job market

By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | September 04, 2009 17:19
Windsmtih Anthony Perales, helps load tools to the top of a wind turbine at the Shiloh II Wind Project near Rio Vista. T energy sector is a growing part of the Solano County jobs outlook Photo by File Photo
FAIRFIELD - The job market hasn't been the best source of good news lately, but eventually that will change.

A labor report released Friday showed U.S. unemployment rates at a 26-year high of 9.7 percent. Reports for Solano County and the rest of California are due to be released Sept. 18.

Recent trends have been mildly positive. The report Friday showed fewer job losses than the month prior. At the very least, they have been encouraging enough to allow some glimpses at the future.

Solano County has long employed more people in the construction and retail industries, both sectors that have suffered in the recession. Coming out of the recession, Solano Economic Development Corp. President Mike Ammann singled out two industries for future growth -- biotechnology and the energy sector.

Both are areas the Solano EDC has noted before. In February, it held a discussion forum on the local 'life sciences cluster,' and is planning another one for the future on energy.

Jeffrey Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific, said in July that he expects a slow recovery for Solano County.

He pointed to the local economy's dependence on the construction industry, which was hit particularly hard in the economic recession.

'I am more confident in a better recovery for some of the urban areas that have more of a highly diverse and high skill-type economy,' he said.

Michael said at the time he is most pessimistic about the recovery for the automobile manufacturing industry and the financial sector. For Solano County, he forecast an improvement in jobs in the sector of trade, transportation and utilities, which he predicted would start adding jobs by the second quarter of 2010.

An August report on Solano County by the state Employment Development Department showed 1,200 lost jobs during the month of July. However, virtually all the losses were government jobs, and the trade, transportation and utilities sector added about 200 positions.

Growth in the energy sector might be difficult to categorize on a traditional job report, Ammann said.

'It is sort of a new segment,' he said. 'Some will fall into mining, and what category do you put windmill guys?'

Officials with the local Workforce Investment Board, which works with major employers and tracks industry wide developments, were unavailable for comment Friday.

Ammann said he believes one of Solano County's roles going forward will be as an open, business-friendly area to expand upon established technologies, similar to the way the Montezuma Hills area has become a wind energy hot spot.

'We have a port in Benicia, we have Mare Island -- some places that aren't developed that might be able to scale up,' Ammann said. 'They are going to need a county like ours that is able to scale-up and develop.'

Reach Ben Antonius at 427-6977 or bantonius@dailyrepublic.net.