San Luis Obispo County in California has slowly climbed into the growth sector of employment during the fourth quarter of 2011. This is happening even though the local unemployment rate is slowly moving upwards in the area.

For the third consecutive month, the number of jobs grew, with close to 100 nonfarm jobs added in the seasonally adjusted number of 96,700 jobs in October. These statistics were provided by the California Employment Development Department.

These numbers equate to a three percent recovery for the county, which is around 2,800 jobs, compared to the number of local jobs in the month of July had plummeted to 93,900. In June 2007, local employment peaked at 104,600 nonfarm positions, which was 8.2 percent higher than October’s level of employment according to The Tribune.

The unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent from the 9.6 percent back in September. This data was released by Beacon Economics, which is a Los Angeles company that keeps record of the regional economies in California.

There was a decrease in over 1,100 jobs in the workforce of San Luis Obispo County. The number of unemployed is defined by the state of California as the number of people actually working, plus the unemployed people who are looking for work.

There are economists out there who claim the reason for the decline in numbers is that those who are unemployed have stopped searching for work. They have stopped searching for work because they have been discouraged by the state of the economy or those unemployed people have moved out of the area.

In the month of October, the number of residents living in San Luis Obispo County who were working fell by 1,100 to 122,700. Those numbers are seasonally adjusted and provided by Beacon.

Many wonder what season adjustment is, because it plays a major role in the unemployment rate of the country. Season adjustment is a method of statistics used to account for historical patterns of job losses and job gains that occur during specific times of the year. For example, companies hire workers during the holiday season to help with the rush of shoppers. Another example of seasonally adjusted employment includes the cutting of some school district jobs during the summer months, then rehiring those jobs once the school year begins once again in the fall.

The only sector to post a notable decline in jobs was the public sector. The public sector recorded a seasonally adjusted number of 400 government jobs lost in October. In San Luis Obispo County, the largest category of jobs is government, as the category boasts 19,500 employees in that industry. There was an actual loss of 600 government jobs in the county, which was offset by 200 new state government jobs.

The worst performing industry in the county was the other services industry. This industry posted the highest loses from July through the month of October.