Good News, Bad News on Jobs

The latest government labor statistics show Orange County’s unemployment rate at 2%, the lowest it has ever been. More than 1.5 million residents held jobs last month. Those statistics attest to the county’s strong economic health and bolster community confidence in its future. They also should be viewed with a bit of cautious concern.

Disney’s California Adventure theme park, due to open Feb. 8 next to Disneyland in Anaheim, has just completed hiring more than 8,000 employees. It was no easy task to find them. Disney hiring executives held numerous job fairs, sent out fliers and contacted community groups and college campuses in an aggressive effort to pull applicants from the county’s shallow labor pool.

In the county’s high-tech industries, employers have been heard to bemoan a shortage of experienced engineers and scientists.

The difficulty in finding employees raises worry about the quantity of available labor talent and about the possibility that talent will go elsewhere. For decades, two of the county’s major problems have been a shortage of affordable housing and growing traffic congestion. Those conditions make it hard to keep a diverse cadre of workers available to meet job needs in an area that is forecast to generate 48,000 new jobs this year.

When people can’t find affordable housing they move elsewhere, and when freeways become too congested and commutes too slow and frustrating, many take jobs closer to home; in addition, potential employees become reluctant to move in. That shrinks the labor pool. It also can discourage new business from setting up shop and prompt companies already established to relocate or expand in areas where workers are easier to find.

We should rejoice in the all-time-low unemployment statistic. The more people working and building the economy the better. But government and private industry are flirting with trouble if they don’t adequately address conditions that affect the importation of both high-tech and lower-paying service industry workers who seem always to be in high demand.