Jobless Rates Drop in Contra Costa But Only a Little

Unemployment rates remained nearly unchanged in Contra Costa County and the East Bay in October, according to figures released by the state Employment Development Department today.

The employment rate for Contra Costa County as a whole was 10 percent, slightly below September's rate of 10.1 percent. The county's labor force stood at 519,400, with 51,700 of those people jobless in October.

In Alameda County, the October rate was 10.1 percent, slightly below the 10.2 percent rate the previous month.

Figures were not seasonally adjusted.

These compare with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 11.2 percent for California.

The news was relatively good for computer systems analysts, registered nurses and computer software engineers, the jobs specified in the largest number of help wanted ads in the East Bay during October, according to EDD figures.

Kaiser Permanente was the employer with the most job ads: 1,199. Oakland employers posted the largest number of openings, with 5,251 job ads. In Contra Costa County, the leader was Walnut Creek with 2,294 ads posted.

Rates varied widely from one Contra Costa community to the next, from a low of 2.4 percent in Clayton to highs of 21.8 percent in West Contra Costa's Rollingwood area and 20.6 percent in the East County community of Knightsen.

Concord's jobless rate stood at 10.8 percent, slightly below September's 10.9 percent.

In Danville, the October unemployment rate was 5.3 percent, the same as September's, and the same as the nearby community of Diablo. In Alamo, the rate was 3.7 percent.

San Ramon's rate was at 4.1 percent, a small decrease from September's rate of 4.2 percent.

Walnut Creek had a jobless rate of 6.7 percent, down from 6.8 percent in September.