Sacramento Region, California Post Job Gains In August

Unemployment is down in the Sacramento area. August's jobless rate was 5.5 percent - a nine-year low for the month.

"The last time the unemployment rate was this low in August was in August 2007," says Cara Welch with the state Employment Development Department.

She says the construction sector led month-over-month gains, adding 3,300 jobs, which is a lot more than usual.

"It was [an] above average increase. In [the] 10 year average, we see about 500 job increase. So the 3,300 jobs that were gained marked the largest gain in this industry since May 2006."

Other industries adding jobs in August include: retail, trade transportation and utilities and health care. But those gains were offset by job losses in: leisure and hospitality, agriculture, and  manufacturing.

Here are the August unemployment numbers for each county: 5.2 percent in El Dorado County, 4.7 percent in Placer County, 5.7 percent in Sacramento County and 5.5 percent in Yolo County. 

Strong August For California

California added more than 60,000 jobs in August – a strong showing particularly when compared to the rest of the nation. But it turns out July's job gains weren't nearly as good as originally reported.

The state's 63,000 new jobs sounds good all by itself. It's even better when looking at the nationwide jobs gain last month: about 150,000. That means California added more than 40 percent of the entire country's new jobs in August.

But revised data for July show that month's job gains were only half as high as originally estimated – just 18,000 new jobs.

Despite the strong August, California's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.5 percent. But that snaps a two-month streak of the jobless rate going up. Before that, the unemployment rate hadn’t risen in more than five years.

Overall, the statewide rate has dropped a half-point in the last year and is about a half-point higher than the national average.

The state has added more than 375,000 jobs since a year ago.