State’s Unemployment Rate Drops

Sonora, CA — California’s unemployment rate dipped slightly in August to 10.6 percent, down from 10.7 percent the previous month. Following suit, Tuolumne County rate fell from 11.7 percent to 11.3 percent and Calaveras County dropped from 13.1 percent to 12.6 percent.

The state Employment Development Department released the latest jobs numbers on Friday. They are an improvement over California’s 11.9 percent unemployment rate a year ago and show the state’s economy is continuing its slow recovery.

California added more than 12,000 non-farm payroll jobs in August. The biggest gains in jobs were in the educational and health services sectors. Mining and logging, transportation and government were among the sectors that saw job losses.

A forecast released this week projected that employment in the state would pick up slowly in the coming year, with the unemployment rate dropping to 8.5 percent in 2014.

The national unemployment rate in August was 8.1 percent.