California Reports Strong July Job Growth

The Employment Development Department reports 80,600 non-farm payroll jobs were created in July.

Chapman University economist Esmael Adibi says California’s job growth accounts for a large percentage of all jobs created nationwide.

"When you look at that and compare it to the U.S. for the same month, which was job creation of 215,000, we got almost 37 percent off all the jobs generated last month," he says. "And that’s an excellent report."

The unemployment rate statewide dropped just a tenth of a percent to 6.2 percent from June to July. But Adibi says the small drop was expected.

"As the economy improves people are coming back to the job market," says Adibi. "So unemployment rate is not expected to drop with a large margin. But every month we’re getting a little drop, tenth of a percent, two-tenths of a percent, and it’s moving in the right direction."

Adibi says the state’s job creation was spread out among all major sectors of the economy. The "professional and business services" sector posted the largest employment increases, creating 22,300 jobs.