Labor Force Participation Rate
Definition
This metric is the sum of all workers who are employed or actively seeking employment divided by the total working-age population.
Significance
This metric indicates the strength of the local economy by recognizing the amount of working human capital in the region.
Trends
As of Q4 2019, the Labor Force Participation Rate was 61.44%. Over the last decade Ventura County has fallen further and further behind national and state rates which have hovered around 63-64.9% and 62-64.9% respectively. Specific causes are difficult to pinpoint, but include a lack of high wage job creation to motivate worker participation, high cost of housing driving working age families out of the region, a national political environment that is hostile to immigration of new workers, and an overall aging society retiring in place.
Since the required business closures in March of 2020, the county has witnessed a substantial decline in the level of labor force participation from 423,000 in January of 2020 to 409,293 in April and sliding further to 406,800 in May of 2020. As of May, the County is showing a total of 351,800 employed people with 55,000 unemployed (approximations based on EDD data and USBLS QCEW).
The national rate is currently sitting at 60.8% as of May 2020, while the state rests at a rate of 59.3% (down from 62.6% in January 2020).
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