Unemployment Low For June In Sacramento Area; Statewide Rate Holds Steady

The Sacramento area unemployment rate for June has reached an 11 year low. Numbers for June show the jobless rate for the Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade area was 4.8 percent.

"The last time the unemployment rate was as low as 4.8 percent in June was in June 2006 when the rate was 4.7 percent," says Cara Welch with the state Employment Development Department or EDD. 

Last month's rate was up from May's rate of 4.1 percent. Welch says it's typical for the rate to increase during this time of year. She says contributing factors include students leaving school and entering the labor force, and school employees being laid off for the summer.

Statewide, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent. That's the first time in eight months that it hasn't dropped from one month to the next.

That’s just one piece of bad news for a state labor market that slumped last month. California also lost 1,400 jobs … in a month the nation as a whole added more than 220,000.

If not for the 20,000 people who left the workforce, the state’s jobless rate likely would have gone up.

Unemployment in California continues to vary widely based on what part of the state you live in. So in the booming Bay Area, San Francisco and Marin counties lead the pack – at just over 3 percent unemployment. Colusa County and Imperial County are at nearly 12 and 21 percent, respectively -- making them the only California counties with double-digit unemployment.

“Professional and business services” and the construction industry posted the strongest statewide job gains last month. The government and information sectors fared the worst.

In the Sacramento area, the sector that saw the most growth between May and June was leisure and hospitality, which added 2,900 jobs. Food services and accommodation accounted for 72.4 percent of those job additions. Arts, entertainment and recreation added 800 jobs. Construction and government also saw gains.

EDD says occupations with the most job ads in Sacramento last month were: registered nurses, truck drivers and retail salespersons. And employers with the most job ads included: Sutter Health, Dignity Health, UC Davis and Starbucks.