Riverside County’s unemployment rate rises a notch

Minor ripples in the regional economy pushed Riverside County’s unemployment rate up slightly last month, state officials said recently. The jobless rate in October, based on preliminary estimates, was 3.9%, compared to 3.8% in September, according to the California Employment Development Department. The rate was nearly a half-percentage point lower than the year-ago level, when countywide unemployment stood at 4.3%, figures showed. Roughly 43,000 residents were out of work in October, and 1,062,800 were employed, according to the EDD. Coachella had the highest unemployment rate countywide at 11.2%, followed by the unincorporated community of Cabazon at 8.8% and the unincorporated community of Highgrove at 6.7%. The combined unemployment rate for Riverside and San Bernardi