Employment Ventura County

Hiring in Ventura County is expected to gain momentum during the last three months of the year, according to an employment outlook survey by Manpower Inc. Among Ventura County employees who responded to the survey, 36% said they will increase their work force this fall, while 10% expect to reduce personnel and 48% indicated their employment levels will remain stable. The best job opportunities are expected in the wholesale/retail trade, education and services.

A steady loss of industrial jobs in Ventura County has one area economist predicting that the local workforce will shrink this year. "When we look at the end of 2003, it will be significantly softer than 2002," said Dan Hamilton, director of economics for the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast. "We're now seeing the impact on jobs from a decline in the production of goods and services sometime in the latter half of 2002. You could say we're now paying the piper."

Ventura County employers are upbeat about their hiring plans for the first quarter of 1995, according to a quarterly survey by Manpower Inc. Increased staffing is expected by 27% of the county's companies, while 7% plan cutbacks, the study shows. The rest of the firms are unsure or plan no changes. Three months ago, Manpower found that 17% of the county's large employers planned to increase payrolls and 3% expected layoffs. A year ago, 13% predicted increased hiring and 13% forecast decreases.

Ventura County's golden economy is beginning to lose its luster as April's 4.8% unemployment rate, released Friday, brought with it a fourth straight month of industrial job losses. In the 12 months ended April 30, the number of local nonfarm jobs fell 4,700 -- to 275,800 -- with most of the losses coming in high-paying employment categories, such as manufacturing and professional services. Gains and losses in lower-paying jobs were about even.

Companies in the east county expect to increase their payrolls by 14% in the next five years, according to a survey conducted by Moorpark College. The federally funded study found that 73 responding companies expect to hire 2,500 new workers by mid-1999, according to Vicki Bortolussi, the college's dean of vocational education. The companies, mostly in Camarillo, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, now have 17,600 full- and part-time employees.

Ventura County's job market will be softer in the second quarter than it was in the first, according to a survey of the county's major employers by Manpower Inc. The quarterly study says 17% of the county's larger companies are planning to increase their payrolls this spring, but that an even larger number--27%--plan layoffs. Of the remainder, 46% expect no change and 10% are undecided. The survey was mostly conducted before the earthquake, a Manpower spokesman said.

GTE California announced Thursday that it will establish a customer service center in Oxnard, a move that will bring 650 jobs to a city reeling from a spate of plant closures and job losses in recent years. Executives of the Thousand Oaks-based telephone company said they chose Oxnard because it is close to the company's Thousand Oaks headquarters and because local officials aggressively recruited the firm.

Despite the destruction that hit much of Ventura County as a result of last week's earthquake and its aftershocks, the quake's long-range financial impact on the county should be positive, in the view of Cal Lutheran University economics professor Jamshid Damooei. Thousands of jobs will be created to repair the damage to homes, industrial plants, stores and public facilities, predicts Damooei, an expert on the county's economy.

More jobs will be lost than gained in Ventura County during this year's third quarter, according to a survey conducted by the Ventura office of Manpower Inc. And, while the employment outlook is better than it was in the spring quarter, it's bleaker than a year ago, the study showed. "Employers are still cutting back, and many people are still out of work," said Barbara Klein, Manpower's Ventura manager.

Computer Peripherals Inc., a Newbury Park concern owned mostly by Asian interests, will introduce two new products this month. And, thanks to several factors that could signal a favorable trend for the U.S. economy, the firm plans to switch much of its overseas production to Ventura County. The new products are a high-speed modem--which allows computers to send data over phone lines--and a sophisticated printing cartridge.

The Navy plans to bring 24 jobs to Port Hueneme by creating a multimillion-dollar virtual missile testing system that supporters say should further gird the base against closure. Called Virtual Test Capability, the five-year project will connect laboratories, ships and aircraft throughout the United States to provide a simulation of warfare situations, Navy officials said. The nationwide testing network would have the Navy's Surface Warfare Engineering Facility as its hub.

Half the employers in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties plan to hire more people in the fourth quarter, according to an employment outlook survey conducted by Manpower Inc. Among local companies responding to the temporary personnel firm's quarterly survey, 50% say they will increase their work force this fall, 5% plan to reduce personnel and 42% say they will remain the same. About 3% remain uncertain.

The lack of affordable housing for people laboring in the burgeoning service industries has spawned a new kind of migrant worker--people employed in suburban Thousand Oaks who can't find a place to live here. "When this community began in the 1960s, people lived here and commuted out; at that time you might have called us a bedroom community, but that's changed," said senior city planner Lawrence Marquart.

Hiring in Ventura County is expected to gain momentum during the last three months of the year, according to an employment outlook survey by Manpower Inc. Among Ventura County employees who responded to the survey, 36% said they will increase their work force this fall, while 10% expect to reduce personnel and 48% indicated their employment levels will remain stable. The best job opportunities are expected in the wholesale/retail trade, education and services.

Since the Rev. Broderick A. Huggins came to St. Paul Baptist Church in 1990, his south Oxnard congregation has swelled from 300 to more than 1,200. But after nearly six years behind the pulpit, the 39-year-old pastor now wants the simple, A-framed sanctuary on South C Street to serve as something more than a spiritual hub.

Low-income youth and adults and this area's laid-off workers will be counting on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for employment help beginning Nov. 1. That's when the county's job training and placement program, which for the past 10 years has been handled by the private, nonprofit Job Training Policy Council, becomes the responsibility of the county.

Layoffs will far outnumber hires in western Ventura County during the first quarter of 1993, but the job outlook in the county is improving, according to the latest employer survey by Manpower Inc. Cutbacks are planned by 30% of the firms in Oxnard, Ventura and Camarillo surveyed by the temporary help concern. This compares with 20% that expect to increase their payrolls, 47% that predict no change and 3% that are unsure of their plans. Three months ago, the job picture was arguably darker.

The job outlook in Ventura County has brightened considerably, according to a state employment official and a quarterly survey of employers' hiring plans. The survey, conducted by the temporary help firm Manpower Inc., shows that Ventura County employers have sharply stepped up their expansion plans, with fully half of the county's businesses planning to enlarge their work forces during the second quarter.

Ashamed to seek help from the government, Eliodoro Frutos had never been to an unemployment office before last week. But the farm laborer, out of work indefinitely because of the recent storms, swallowed his pride out of concern for his wife and five children who live in Mexico. Frutos, who has a permit to work in the United States, said his family members rely on the money he sends them to survive. "I haven't been able to send them any money," Frutos said. "They don't have anything."

Ventura County employers are upbeat about their hiring plans for the first quarter of 1995, according to a quarterly survey by Manpower Inc. Increased staffing is expected by 27% of the county's companies, while 7% plan cutbacks, the study shows. The rest of the firms are unsure or plan no changes. Three months ago, Manpower found that 17% of the county's large employers planned to increase payrolls and 3% expected layoffs. A year ago, 13% predicted increased hiring and 13% forecast decreases.