Ventura County is expected to add jobs each quarter this year, though the county’s economic growth will lag compared to the country as a whole, according to a report released today by California Lutheran University’s Center for Economic Research and Forecasting. The center’s economist says Ventura County was hard hit by the recession. As of December, Ventura County was down by 26,800 jobs from the December 2007 level of 320,700 jobs, representing an 8.4-percent net decline in three years. For the entire year of 2010, the county’s average job level was down by 5,133 jobs compared to the previous year. The county had 293,875 jobs in 2010 compared to 299,008 jobs in 2009. The largest declines were in construction, manufacturing, trade and tourism. The only sectors that saw improvement, on average, were health care services and repair/maintenance/personal services. The professional and business sector also saw improvement in the latter part of 2010. The county is expected to experience job growth each quarter during 2011, along with consistent output gains. While the economic growth is expected to slow to about 1 percent for the first quarter of this year, economists say it should see steady increases over the next two years, eventually reaching about 3 percent by the end of 2012. The county’s slow rate of growth compared to the United States overall is partially due to the area’s ongoing weaknesses in residential and commercial real estate markets. Another reason is an expected lack of growth in the government jobs sector. Jessica Vernabe