VICTORVILLE — The home building business has been so good over the past three months that KB Homes has hired approximately 25 people to keep up with the demand.
Most of the new jobs went to departments such as project management, purchasing marketing and customer service, said the company's manager of planning, George Chu.
"We have more projects, so we've been hiring more staff," Chu said.
State economists are seeing the same trend.
The Inland Empire's scorching construction industry added 1,300 jobs compared to a year ago, as San Bernardino County's unemployment rate plummeted from 6 percent in July to 5.3 percent in August, state officials reported Monday.
Preliminary figures indicate the national unemployment rate in August was 5.4 percent, while California's rate was 5.7 percent.
In the Inland Empire, trade, transportation and utilities reported significant job gains, as did business services, department data showed.
And the amount of construction and overall growth in the High Desert speaks well for a future need for employees.
"I think that our view is positive on the High Desert," Chu said. "Things are really competitive there."
Projected June unemployment rates for High Desert cities are as follows: Adelanto, 13.2 percent; Apple Valley, 5.7 percent; Barstow, 6.8 percent; Hesperia, 6.5 percent; Victorville, 7.3 percent. The projected city unemployment rates are based on each city's proportion of the county's unemployment during the 2000 census and do not necessarily reflect actual unemployment rates in each city.
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