County Unemployment Rate Is Up 7%

San Diego County's unemployment rate in January was 7 percent, up from a revised 6.5 percent in December, the state Employment Development Department announced today.

That compares with California's unemployment rate of 8.5 percent and nationwide figure of 7 percent. The state and national rates are not seasonally adjusted.

A post-holidays drop of 8,700 retail positions fueled the jobless spike in San Diego County, the EDD said. In all, the region lost 16,400 nonfarm jobs in January.

Other types of businesses and organizations that shed large number of employees were in education, insurance, ambulatory health care and food services.

The result was the highest unemployment rate in San Diego since October, when it was 7.1 percent. In January last year, the rate was 8.5 percent.

In January, 111,000 San Diegans were without work in a labor force of almost 1.6 million people. One year earlier, 136,700 were unemployed, according to the EDD.