County has choices for department chief jobs

The state's high unemployment could help Colusa County in its hunt for new department heads.

More than 35 professionals have applied for the position of personnel director, county officials said Tuesday.

"That is a lot," said interim director Cindy Lovelace, who is in the process of screening the applicants.

The county is also looking for a new director of Health and Human Services and director of Behavioral Heath, and will begin searching for a new agriculture commissioner later this fall.

Lovelace said more than half of the candidates applying for the job of personnel director met the basic "paper" requirements for the position, although the top candidates will be narrowed down to pool of four or five for interviews.

County officials say they are cashing in on California's high unemployment rate, after choosing to "fly" the department head positions at their current salaries.

The personnel director's salary is $7,650 a month, higher than both Glenn County at $7,114 and Lake County at $7,517, although outgoing personnel director suggested before he left in June that the county increase the salary to boost interest in the position.

The Board of Supervisors rejected the idea given the current economic conditions.

According to data released Tuesday by the California Employment Development Department, the state's unemployment in July was unchanged from the previous month at 12.3 percent, despite a decreased of 9,400 nonfarm jobs.

The data was taken from two separate surveys, the EDC said, with the highest number of job losses being created in government employment, mostly temporary federal Census jobs.

On the other hand, private nonfarm payrolls grew by 13,700 jobs in July, the EDC reported.

Five categories — construction, trade, information, educational and health services — added jobs over the month, gaining 21,000. Educational and health services posted the largest increase, the EDC said.

Six categories — mining and logging, manufacturing, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and government reported job declines by 30,400 jobs. Government posted the largest decline over the month, down by 23,100 jobs.

Marin County has the lowest unemployment rate in the state with 8.6 percent of its workforce unemployed. Imperial has the highest with 30.3 percent unemployed.

Yuba County has the second highest unemployment in the state with 19.6 percent of its workforce without jobs, the EDC said.

The number of people unemployed in California in July was about 2.3 million, the EDC said, up by 7,000 over the previous month, and up by 100,000 compared with July of last year.

Contact Susan Meeker at 458-2121 or smeeker@tcnpress.com.