State Jobless Rate Numbers Hold For February

Sonora, CA — While California’s unemployment rate held steady the Mothers Lodes faired a little better with just a slight dip in the figures.

The state Employment Development Department report released on Friday showed that the state’s jobless rate remained at 4.2 percent in February.
It also documented that a year earlier the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent. Department officials also noted that the rate stayed at 4.1 percent from last September through December before rising to 4.2 percent in January.

The Mother Lode numbers inched down last month. Tuolumne County’s rate decreased to 5.5 percent in February from 5.6 percent in January. Calaveras County’s numbers also declined from 4.8 percent in the first month of the year to 4.7 percent in the second month.

For the second straight month the largest statewide job gains were in professional and business services, up 4,200 jobs in January and another 12,500 last month. The sector with the highest employment losses was in construction, which reported it was down 7,700 jobs. The county with the highest unemployment remains Colusa, which saw a spike from 19.6 percent in January to 20.5 percent in February. San Mateo held onto the low spot, dipping from 2.5 percent in the beginning of the year to 2.3 percent last month.

The U.S. unemployment rate also saw a decrease of 0.2 percentage point bringing the rate to 3.8 percent in February.