YUMA & IMPERIAL COUNTY – A report just released by Yahoo Finance listing the Top 10 “Worst cities to find a job” shows rather unsettling results for the desert southwest. Yuma came in at number 4, El Centro 3, Brawley 2nd and Calexico as the worst city to find a job with an unemployment rate at 27.40% . The report even encourages people not to move to these areas.
We spoke with economic experts to find out if these statistics depict a clear picture of what is actually going on. Patrick Goetz with the Yuma Private Industry Council says that a major issue with the data is our agricultural industry, where many workers are seasonal and then go on unemployment during the off season. Carlos Figari director of Imperial Valley Small Business Development Center says this skews the data.
Goetz says that Yuma, which the report says has an unemployment rate at about 16%, has actually had much higher unemployment in the past and has recently been going through significant economic growth. He says that even some jobs in the area are having trouble filling positions. He says a major issue with our areas job market is a skills gap, where open positions in some industries can’t find workers with the right qualifications.
If you are currently looking for work YPIC says there are many positions available Goetz says, “We posted over 171 job openings just for October this year about half of those are still open and not filled”. But with all the jobs available right now Goetz says applicants should be aware of the way the local job market works, “It’s cyclic when March and April comes around we will see a downturn again”.
You can view the Yahoo Finance report at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/worst-cities-to-find-a-job-153058140.html