Ventura County Economy

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.

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.

Ventura County isn't about to return to the boom days of the late 1980s, but the county's business climate should continue "stabilizing" over the next six months, predicts Mark Schniepp, director of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project. Schniepp, who tracks Ventura County closely, looks for a surge in retailing and some other non-manufacturing fields in the months ahead, but believes that high-tech and industrial activity will remain stagnant.

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.

Despite the recession, businesses are still moving into new quarters throughout the county. Recently signed leases include: Techmedica Inc., a prosthetics manufacturer, subleased a 78,000-square-foot building on Calle Tecate in Camarillo from 3M Corp. Logicode Technology Inc., a Thousand Oaks firm, will sublease Techmedica's former building on Flynn Road in Camarillo. Told Partners' Woodland Hills office handled both transactions.

The recession's impact on Ventura County home sales and on the construction industry is underscored by two newly issued reports. All building activity in the county was down more than 50% during August, while sales of new homes fell 21% in the quarter ended Sept. 30, the studies show. In both month-to-month and year-to-year comparisons, construction was off 55%, according to the Construction Industry Research Board, a trade group.

When Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn announced a new jobs initiative last week, he stressed the seriousness of the local economic situation by flashing a Depression-era magazine. Featured in the July, 1933, California Journal of Development were articles on the importance of government and business cooperation in times of crisis. "There is a growing partnership and marriage between business leaders and government leaders," Flynn said.

Ventura County's real estate rebound continued in November, with resales of single-family houses up 19% from November, 1992, and 4% ahead of October, 1993, according to Dataquick Information Systems. House resales totaled 511 in November, compared to 429 a year ago and 489 the previous month, the service said. The median house price in November was $203,000, compared to $205,000 a year ago. Condominium resales in November totaled 103, the same as a year ago.

Ventura County's jobless rate dipped to 8.5% in February, the lowest rate since May, as manufacturing, construction and service industries each showed a modest increase in jobs, state labor officials said Friday. Despite the hopeful news, the head of the state employment department painted a gloomy portrait of the California economy in a speech in Oxnard on Friday, calling it the worst slump since the Great Depression. The county's jobless rate, which fell from 9.