Stanislaus, Merced job outlook continues to improve

California officials say the state unemployment rate dropped to its lowest point in nine years last month, and jobless rates also continued to decline in Stanislaus and Merced counties.

The Employment Development Department reported Friday that California’s jobless rate fell to 5.2 percent in May, down a tenth of a percentage point from April. The rate was last this low in May 2007, before the Great Recession.

The Stanislaus unemployment rate dipped from 8.9 percent in April to 8 percent in May, and Merced’s declined from 11.1 percent to 9.7 percent in the same time period.

California still has higher unemployment than the national rate, which was 4.7 percent in May.

The state’s jobless rate was 6.4 percent a year ago; those of Stanislaus and Merced counties in May 2015 were 9.5 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively.

The state says more than 15,000 non-farm payroll jobs were created in May.

Nearly a million people remained unemployed in California, down almost 20,000 since April.

Professional and business services and educational and health services saw the strongest jobs growth.

Manufacturing had the largest job loss.

This story was originally published June 17, 2016 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Stanislaus, Merced job outlook continues to improve."