Jobless Rate Climbs to 9.3% in October : Employment: The figure surpasses the 7.4% mark recorded one year ago. The county has lost 5,200 jobs over the past 12 months.

Ventura County’s jobless rate jumped to 9.3% in October, leaving 35,500 residents unemployed at the beginning of the holiday season.

The county’s unemployment rate greatly exceeded the 7.4% rate recorded in October, 1991, according to a report released Wednesday by state labor officials. And the new monthly figure remained near a nine-year high for unemployed people actively seeking work, labor officials said, with the county losing 5,200 jobs over the past year.

While the national unemployment rate fell to 6.8% in October against a backdrop of favorable economic data, rising joblessness in Ventura County reflected a lingering slump in the California economy. The state’s unemployment rate in October matched the 9.3% rate in Ventura County, officials said.

After nearly two years of dwindling jobs, the outlook for a prosperous holiday season appeared to be fading for those waiting in unemployment lines in Ventura on Wednesday.

“I’m going to buy my mom something and my dad something for Christmas, but everybody else will have to take an IOU,” said Craig Fox of Ventura, a 29-year-old unemployed construction worker. He added that most members of his family have agreed to draw names and buy just a single gift and are setting limits on how much to spend.

Despite high unemployment, job-seekers in Ventura County fared slightly better than their counterparts in some Southern California counties, according to a report issued by the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

The 9.1% jobless rate registered in Ventura County during September was well below the 10.4% rate in Los Angeles County and the 11.8% rate in the Inland Empire counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, the SCAG report showed.

For Craig Fox, this is the second straight year that lower wages in a depressed building industry will force him to trim holiday spending. “You can’t make any money in piecework right now,” he said. “I was paid twice as much two years ago for doing the same job.”

The son of a general contractor, Fox grew up in the construction trade, but said he is thinking of changing occupations because of the building slump.

Sales of new homes are so poor, he said, that instead of building a 150-unit subdivision at one time, developers are only constructing the first 10 houses and then waiting to sell half of them before starting the next phase.

Kevin Rainey of Ventura said he won’t be able to celebrate Christmas with his family in the same way as in past years after he was laid off in June from a $9-an-hour job with Thermodynamic Engineering of Camarillo.

“There won’t be any presents this year,” said Rainey, 36, who is taking classes at Oxnard College to earn a counseling credential.

“This is already December, and I’m more worried about paying my bills and paying the rent than I am about buying Christmas gifts,” Rainey said. He said he is unable to pay for his two sons to visit him this year from Colorado, and mounting bills have forced him to file for bankruptcy.

Rainey said he is determined to rise above the low-wage jobs that are the most commonly available positions in the county. But Rainey said he’s frustrated by the lack of calls from employers after completing job applications.

“I have two answering machines, a cellular service and voice mail, but nobody’s calling me to tell me to come in for an interview,” he said.

Rainey’s difficulty in gaining a skilled position is not unusual, said Aveline Villalobos, who is in charge of the Oxnard unemployment office.

“There is a very skilled group of people in the county who cannot find jobs in their chosen field,” she said. “Some resort to living on their savings, some lose their houses, some move out of state and others have gone on welfare. There’s a lot of hardship out there.”

In eastern Ventura County, initial claims for unemployment benefits and requests for extensions leveled off recently after declining at the start of the year, Pat Baldoni of the Simi Valley unemployment office said.

Villalobos said initial and extended claims in the Oxnard unemployment office have actually risen again in recent months.

Continued weakness in the economy has increasingly hurt family pocketbooks, said Diane Gentile, education director for Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Ventura County.

In 1991, the nonprofit group assisted 3,500 people buried beneath a pile of bills in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties to establish repayment plans, and disbursed $3 million to their creditors. This year, she said, the agency will pay out $6 million to its clients’ creditors.

“The greatest number of calls come after the first of the year, when the holiday shopping bills come in,” Gentile said.

Eileen, a 23-year-old Camarillo woman who declined to give her last name, said she doesn’t know how she and her boyfriend will pay the bills that have increased since she was laid off in October.

“We’re getting buried by bills,” she said. “We’re putting off bills, paying them 15 days late if at all,” she said. “It’s taking its toll. I’ll buy a gift for my little sister, but that’s about it.”