The unemployment rate in San Diego County in July was 9.2 percent, compared to 9.3 percent the previous month and well below the 10.5 percent in July 2011, the state Employment Development Department announced today.
The region added tens of thousands of jobs during July, a month that typically has the highest unemployment rate of the year.
University of San Diego economist Alan Gin said the region is enjoying the kind of job growth that'll bring the unemployment rate down if the growth is sustained over a matter of months.
"The year started off slowly in terms of job growth. But the last couple of months have been really good when you compare on a year over year basis," said Gin. "In June we were up more than 20,000 jobs compared to the previous June. Now we're up more than 35,000 compared to the previous July."
The region gained jobs in nearly every employment sector when compared to last year except for a loss of 4,400 nonfarm jobs. Even the beleaguered construction sector added 2,200 jobs from a year ago.
The number of government positions fell by 11,300, mostly seasonal reductions of teachers.
July's unemployment rate for California was 10.9 percent, and 8.6 percent for the entire U.S. The EDD figures are not seasonally adjusted.
There were 149,400 unemployed people in San Diego County last month, 1,200 more than in June and almost 10,000 more than May. However, the July 2012 total was around 18,000 people lower than the same period in 2011.
The local civilian labor force was over 1.6 million people, according to the EDD.
