Economy Coming Back Slowly In Stanislaus County
MODESTO (CBS13) -- The job market in the U.S. is showing some signs of a recovery. The unemployment rate in March dropped to 8.8 percent.
Those numbers are from the labor department and are at the lowest level in two years. However, in Stanislaus County, the jobless rate is more than double that at 18.1 percent.
We went to Modesto to find out why the rate is still so high. While many businesses are folding and laying off, we found one company that's announced it's expanding in a county with unemployment numbers so high -- it's close to the jobless rate during the great depression.
"What we have here is a 2008 Audi A6 all cleaned up nice and loaded up," said Carmax salesman Michael Jett.
Michael is one of the lucky ones in Stanislaus County where one in five aren't getting paycheck.
Jett is working for a company that keeps growing despite the hard economic times. In fact, Carmax just announced it's hiring for their Fresno and Modesto stores.
Michael says the 75 new people they'll bring on soon are the most they've hired at one time since both stores opened a few years ago. One of the reason it's happening is because some people are starting to spend more money, and used cars are more attractive in this economy.
"We're seeing some glimpses of some improvement," said William Bassitt, Alliance CEO.
William heads a group that deals with the Stanislaus County's economy. He's seen the unemployment rate go from bad to crippling. He says the area's worse than others because it depended heavily on the real estate industry.
"We were putting out 4,000 building permits back then. Now we have about less than a hundred," said William.
But slowly he's seeing more companies hiring like Carmax. But for now, it's too soon to tell if the county will continue to sink while the rest of the nation is starting to swim.
What Carmax's announcement is doing, he says, is helping to restore the economy.
William says Stanislaus County will always lag behind the rest of the country because their economy is largely made up of agriculture. But to improve they'll need to look for other reasons other than the housing industry.
