Ventura County’s unemployment crept up a bit in June but remained lower than it has been for most of the past two years.
Ventura County residents reported an unemployment rate of 4.4% in June’s monthly household survey conducted by the federal government, according to data released July 17 by the state of California. That was up from 3.9% in May, but lower than the rate of 4.8% in June 2025.
Before June, Ventura County’s unemployment rate declined for four straight months. County-level unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted, and the rate tends to decline in the early months of each year.
Ventura County’s unemployment rate spiked to nearly 15% in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit. It has hovered between 4% and 5% for most of the last three years.
The county’s unemployment rate was lower than the state’s in June, but higher than the nation’s. California’s unemployment rate in June was 5.2%, the state’s lowest since May 2024. The U.S. unemployment rate in June was 4.2%.
The unemployment rate counts only people who are looking for work and can’t find any. People who are not looking for jobs are not considered part of the workforce and are not counted as “unemployed.”
California’s economy has added about 107,000 jobs in the past year, but it lost about 16,000 jobs from May to June of this year, according to the July 17 data release by the California Employment Development Department. The job numbers are based on federal survey of businesses, conducted separately from the household survey that determines the unemployment rate.
Private education and health care accounted for almost all of California’s job gains, with the leisure and hospitality sector showing modest growth. Government employers accounted for 7,600 jobs lost, with some of that coming due to summer holidays in public schools.
In Ventura County, job growth has been nearly flat for the past year. The biggest job gains in the past year came in private education and health care, with 2,200 additional jobs between June 2025 and June 2026. The biggest gains in the past month were in leisure and hospitality, with 1,000 additional jobs.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: County’s unemployment rate rose slightly in June. Here’s what it means
Reporting by Tony Biasotti, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tony Biasotti, Ventura County Star | USA TODAY Network
