SACRAMENTO — California’s unemployment rate dropped below 6 percent for the first time since 2007. While still higher than the national unemployment average of 5.1 percent, California’s 5.9 percent rate was helped by 8,200 additional non-farm jobs in September.
Since the recovery from the Great Recession began in 2010, more than 2 million jobs have been added according to data from the California Employment Development Department (EDD).
The EDD’s survey also showed that the overall number of jobs in the state increased by 2.8 percent.
Locally San Joaquin’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 percent from last month’s 8.1 percent. That was the lowest rate since 2007.
Stanislaus County’s unemployment rate was at 7.6 percent, down from 8.4 percent in August. Merced’s unemployment rate dropped from 9.5 percent to 8.2 percent in the month.
The local improvement was aided by seasonal gains in public and private school employment and fall harvest farm hiring. Many students also left summer jobs to return to school, leading to a shrinking of the workforce.
One of the few surprises was Silicon Valley’s drop in employment. Santa Clara and San Benito county saw a rare one-month drop of nearly 10,000 jobs or about 1 percent. Still, the counties’ overall employment is up nearly 5 percent since September 2014.
The post Unemployment rate drops across the state, Central Valley appeared first on Central Valley Business Journal.