Nationwide, employers added 173,000 jobs in August, while the national unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent from 5.3 percent.
California’s unemployment rate, derived from a separate survey of households, was 6.1 percent in August.
This is the fourth monthly state nonfarm jobs increase in a row, state officials said. Professional and business services posted the largest gains on a numerical basis, adding 134,600 jobs (up 5.5 percent). The mining and logging sector, which includes oil and gas production, was down by 1,000 jobs.
Fewer people reported having jobs, but the labor force fell by more than 15,000 people. The US jobless rate declined two-tenths of a percentage point, down to 5.1 percent in August. Arkansas’ payroll jobs have grown by 4.6 percent, Kaza said. The result, 25,800 workers, was 9.3 percent more than were working in the field a year before. Connecticut’s employment growth during the same period was 2.1 percent, according to the report.
Riverside County’s unemployment rate was 7 percent, while San Bernardino County’s was 6.5 percent.
The employment rate in Flathead County was 4.8 percent last month.
August’s jobless rate was comparable to conditions in 2008 before the Great Recession.
Five of the state’s industry super-sectors gained jobs in August, topped by education and health services, which added 2,500 positions.
San Mateo, Martin and San Francisco are the three counties recording the lowest unemployment with San Mateo ranking ahead with only 3.3.
It was the best August job growth in more than a decade, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday.
Statewide, California’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.1 percent in August, down slightly from 6.2 percent in July.
South Carolina’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate recorded the largest one-month decline since 1983 and the state set a new employment level record, according to the state’s Department of Employment and Workforce. Information and the financial activities fields lost around 100 jobs.
“I can tell you here we need more workers”, said Beth Barger, the Naples center supervisor for CareerSource Southwest Florida.