Stanislaus County saw its unemployment rate spike during November, according to new data provided by the California Employment Development Department. 

The jobless rate rose from 5 percent in October to 5.5 percent.

The local statistics mirror employment trends throughout California, as the state unemployment increased from 3.8 percent to 4.0 percent in November.

The unemployment spike is largely due to the loss of farming jobs, as the harvesting season for several crops came to an end. In Stanislaus County, there were 900 farming jobs lost.

There was also significant job loss in the food manufacturing sector, as there were 300 of those jobs lost locally.

The lack of hiring was also a major factor in last month’s rate increases, particularly in Stanislaus County, where the largest growing sector was the health care sector with only 400 new hires.

Heading into December, Turlock had the highest number of unemployed individuals at 4.5 percent, translating to 1,500 out of work. In Ceres, 1,400 individuals reportedly were without work in November. Meanwhile in Denair, there was 200 unemployed for an 8.1 percentage fate. Hilmar, Hughson and Keyes all kept rates low with unemployed hovering around the 100 mark.

Despite minimal hiring in November, the EDD reports that there are still a number of vacancies in several industries, not including the farming sector. There are currently over 2,000 health care and social assistance openings in Stanislaus County. 

As the local and state economies hope to improve in the consumer-heavy December, so will the nationwide job markets, as the United States remained stagnant at a 3.4 percent.