IMPERIAL COUNTY — October 26, 2026. Imperial County’s most recent available unemployment estimate stands far above the statewide headline rate. The California Employment Development Department’s September 2026 county table reports a 20.8% unemployment rate for Imperial County, with an estimated labor force of 76,200 people, 60,400 employed and 15,800 unemployed.

For context, the September statewide rate in the same not-seasonally-adjusted county table is 5.1%. That gap is significant, but readers should not confuse the data with the number of unemployment insurance recipients or assume they describe a single city, such as El Centro or Calexico. County labor-force figures cover people across Imperial County, and the statistics do not directly count every person who has stopped searching for work.

How to use the figures

EDD’s latest release is dated October 16 and describes conditions in September, not jobs lost or gained today. Job seekers should consult CalJOBS for current listings and EDD job services for training and employment assistance, rather than treating a monthly unemployment rate as a vacancy list.

Data source: EDD September 2026 county labor-force table, released October 16. California58 will continue distinguishing county labor figures from statewide seasonally adjusted statistics.

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