EMPLOYMENT HAS BEEN HIT BUT IS GROWING IN SOME INDUSTRIES

Why Is This Important?

Trends in job gains and losses provide a basic measure of economic health. Shifting employment across industries suggests structural changes in Solano County’s economic composition. Over the course of the business cycle, employment shifts have taken place across industries as entire industries grow and shrink, exposing structural changes in Solano County’s economic composition. Tracking establishments and jobs as firms open and close as they move in and out of a region illustrates current and long running structural changes.

How Are We Doing?
Since 1990, Solano County has seen steady employment growth until the recent downturn beginning in 2007. Since its peak in 2006, the county’s employment fell 4 percent with losses of 3,000 jobs between 2007 and 2008 alone. In November 2009, the total number of jobs in Solano County remained 1 percent higher than the number of jobs in the county in 2000. During the same period, jobs in California declined by 3 percent. In terms of Solano County residents, employment trends since 2000 track more closely with the state in employment and unemployment than in industry jobs.

In terms of the employment only of Solano County residents, trends since 2000 track more closely with the state in employment and unemployment.

Over the last decade and a half in Solano County, the number of establishments opening and moving in has exceeded the number closing and moving out, with the majority of the movements taking place between counties in California. On average, between 1995 and 2008, Solano County gained approximately 26,000 establishments due to businesses opening or moving in while losing an average of approximately 17,400 establishments due to businesses closing or moving out. Moreover, between 2007 and 2008, 2,536 establishments either opened or moved into Solano County, while 1,246 establishments either closed of moved out of the county. Of the establishments moving in and out of Solano County, the majority of migration to and from Solano County occurs between other regions in California and Solano County rather than with other states. In 2008, 87 percent of businesses moving into Solano County moved from other regions in California while 76 percent of businesses moving out of the county remained in California. However, these trends are slowly beginning to change; the percentage of firms moving in from other states has steadily increased, while the percentage of firms moving out to other states has also increased.