San Mateo County leads Bay Area with lowest unemployment

About 63,100 non-farm payroll jobs were added in August in California, while the state’s unemployment rate remained at 5.5 percent as it did the previous month in July, according to a survey by the state’s Employment Development Department.

Also in August, 151,000 jobs were added nationwide as the national unemployment rate was measured at 4.9 percent, employment department officials said.

In the Bay Area, San Mateo County had the lowest unemployment rate for the month of August, at 3.2 percent. Both Marin and San Francisco counties came in second for the lowest unemployment rate at 3.5 percent, employment department officials said.

Meanwhile, Solano County held the region’s highest unemployment rate at 5.7 percent.

Both Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties also held high unemployment rates, respectively, with Monterey County at 5.7 percent and Santa Cruz County at 5.8 percent, according to the employment department survey.

The survey also measured the number of Californians holding down jobs in August at 18,170,000, which was up by 57,000 from July, and up by 354,000 when compared to August of 2015.

The number of unemployed Californians was measured at 1,061,000 in August, up 12,000 from July, but down 85,000 from August of last year, employment department officials said.

The 63,100 non-farm jobs added in August in California brings the total number of non-farm jobs in the state to 16,534,300, according to the survey.

The employment department’s numbers are based on a survey of 58,000 California businesses, according to employment department officials.