Sifter

As the economy continues to stagger along, at least for the working man and woman, we offer the employment figures for Butte County, broken down by city, town and community. These figures, released in September by the state Employment Development Department, reflect the employment trends as of August. The retirement community of Paradise has lowest unemployment rate (5.5 percent), while South Oroville suffers the highest (16.4 percent). The national unemployment rate for the same month is 6.1 percent, while the state’s is 6.6 percent.

area labor force employed unemployed rate

Butte County 94,400 87,800 6,600 7.0%

Biggs 760 680 80 10.4%

Chico 24,400 22,750 1,650 6.8%

Concow 500 470 30 6.4%

Durham 3,080 2,970 110 3.5%

Gridley 2,200 1,920 280 12.7%

Magalia 3,270 2,970 300 9.1%

Oroville 4,610 4,120 490 10.6%

Oroville East 3,970 3,710 260 6.6%

Palermo 2,460 2,220 240 9.8%

Paradise 11,120 10,510 610 5.5%

South Oroville 2,880 2,410 470 16.4%

Thermalito 2,630 2,330 300 11.4%