While unemployment rates across the country dropped to the lowest level since 2008 as released in a Friday report, Madera County has followed those trends with its own economic improvements.
The most recent figures from December’s report by the Employment Development Department of California showed Madera’s unemployment grew to 10.7 percent in November from October’s 8.9, but that total was 0.3 percent lower than 2013’s 10.4 percent in the same month.
Bobby Kahn, executive director of the Madera County Economic Development Commission, said given the San Joaquin Valley’s strong agricultural base, unemployment usually grows from November to February as less farmworkers are needed in winter.
Despite that, Kahn noted the overall lower unemployment numbers as compared to the past — particularly against recession-heavy figures from 2010 and 2011 — showed Madera’s economy has grown in recent years...