Orange County is losing jobs in manufacturing faster than in any other sector, state employment officials reported Friday.

Between October 2016 and October 2017, the county lost 6,200 factory jobs. Despite the 3.9 percent drop, however, the sector remains one of the largest, employing 151,100 workers.

The largest dip came in nondurable goods manufacturing, such as food and pharmaceuticals, which dropped 4.1 percent to 39,300.

In durable goods, factories making fabricated metal products, many of them for the aerospace industry, dropped 21,900 jobs, a 2.2 percent dip. Computer and electronic product manufacturing, which includes semiconductors, dropped to 34,200, a 0.3 percent loss.

In California, overall manufacturing fared somewhat better, with only a 0.4 percent decline over the year, bringing the statewide total down to 1,297,100.

The disappointing news at factories, which account for many of the better-paying jobs for blue-collar workers, came as Orange County’s overall hiring expanded at the sluggish pace of 0.5 percent year-over-year, bringing the total number of jobs to 1,603,800.

Almost all the county’s new jobs came in leisure and hospitality, which gained 7,400 positions, most of them in restaurants and hotels. These jobs, many of them servicing the county’s booming tourist industry, pay on average less than $25,000 a year.

Other year-over-year payroll losses in Orange County included a decline of 4,800 jobs in government, with the 2.9 percent dip bringing the total down to 160,000. The sharpest drop was among public school teachers, with payrolls dipping 4.8 percent to 75,800.

Financial activities lost 400 jobs, down to a total of 118,500 in October.

Orange County’s unemployment rate, which was not seasonally adjusted, dipped to 3.3 percent in October, a level considered by economists to be “full employment,” meaning that almost everyone who wants a job has one. It was down from 3.6 percent in September and below the year-ago estimate of 4 percent.

California’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in October. The state added jobs at a rate of 1.5 percent over the year, three times faster than in Orange County.

The U.S. jobless level was 4.1 percent in October.

The unemployment rate is derived from a federal survey of 5,100 California households. The survey of 71,000 California businesses measures jobs in the economy.

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