New data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows some very promising numbers for Kern County.
Even though wages are typically lower than they were before the recession, job growth is off the charts.
A lot of people are still having a tough time finding new jobs with June's unemployment rate just under 14 percent.
But, Kern County is seeing the largest employment increase in the nation. From December 2010 to December 2011, there was a 5.3 percent increase in jobs.
The next closest California county was San Francisco at 3.3 percent.
Nationally, jobs increased only 1.4 percent over that same time.
"I know the wages are down, but the jobs are up which is a good thing. Right now, we have seen a lot of high recruitments in warehousing, oil fields, oil field construction, also welding and so forth," said Aaron Ellis, Employers Training Resource.
But, a lot of those are skilled jobs, so education and job training is key to landing many new jobs.
"The main concern we have is workforce quality because we are getting the job growth, but we have concerns we will hit the wall in terms of having the qualified workforce. So we are pushing the real necessity workforce training, vocational training," said Richard Chapman, Kern Economic Development.
Automation of industries has made working with computers a must in many new jobs. And, that will be key when trying to land one of the new jobs that has popped up in Kern County.
Unfortunately, with high unemployment and an increase in new jobs, employers have the upper hand.
"It's an employers market so they have more customers to choose from and select. So they can lower their wages to help with their bottom line instead of paying the higher wages for those jobs. They can go ahead and pay them at a reasonable wage, but not at a higher wage," said Ellis.
Another surprising figure from the report shows the national average weekly wage is $955.
In Kern County, it's $826.
