Economic Recovery for Orange County

Economic recovery for the Orange County area seems to be improving, which is good news for all of the residents living in the area that have been hoping and waiting for the economy to take a turn for the better. The best news of all, perhaps, is the fact that tourism employment has greatly increased and improved, especially during a time in which more people are feeling comfortable enough financially to actually go on vacation and visit the area. And, there are other sectors that are also improving within Orange County as well, meaning more jobs will be made available and hopefully the unemployment levels can greatly decline.

Within the past few years, Orange County has dealt with some major losses, especially with a whole lot of jobs being cut throughout the years, even in the leisure and hospitality sector. However, that particular sector has finally managed to gain back every last one of those jobs that were once cut back when the economy was in turmoil and when the recession was taking its toll. Employment has increased within hotels in the area, as well as within restaurants and theme parks too, meaning more opportunities for the unemployed in Orange County. In fact, the number of jobs within theme parks, hotels and restaurants was at 181,500, even more than the number of jobs that were available during Orange County’s peak back in the summer of 2008.

While tourist employment has greatly improved, other sectors are improving as well. The healthcare sector seems to be making improvements and has become very essential for helping with the job growth in Orange County. During the recession, the healthcare continued to do better than other sectors and after the recession, it continues to increase and has reached a high during the month of April for this year. It is expected that more hiring is going to take place, especially since expansions are going on within the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. With the expansion taking place, there will be tons of job opportunities and people being hired on all different kinds of levels. Even those who are not licensed professional may still be able to find work within the hospital.

Because of the growth that continues to occur in Orange County, the area continues to have one of the lower unemployment rates out of all the other counties within the state, as the unemployment rate was at 7.5 percent during the month of May. With so many increases going on, a lot of the businesses in the area are also starting to feel more confident and are beginning to hire more people to help. With all of the job growth, it is expected that the unemployment rate will start trickling down to a lower level.