State Joblessness Continues to Decline

California’s unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent in November, as the state added 5,500 non-agricultural jobs during the month.

The state has now added more than 2.1 million jobs since the recovery officially began in February 2010, according to the state Employment Development Department’s latest monthly jobs report, which was released Friday.

Year-over-year, the state’s jobless rate fell by 1.5 percent last month.  The number of people in California who were out of work dropped by about 274,000 between November of 2014 and November of this year, the department reported.

The greatest gap was in the number of jobs added: 5,500 jobs last month compared with 90,100 jobs added exactly one year earlier.

The U.S. unemployment rate in November was five percent, down from 5.8 percent in November 2014 but unchanged compared with October.

In the Inland Empire, Riverside County posted a 6.2 percent unemployment rate last month, a two percent drop year-over-year. San Bernardino County recorded a 5.9 percent unemployment rate, down 1.8 percent from November 2014 according to the report.

Statewide, five categories – construction, manufacturing, trade, transportation and utilities, educational and health services and leisure and hospitality – combined added 20,500 jobs compared with October.

Trade, transportation and utilities added 9,800 jobs month-over-month, the most of any of those sectors, the department reported.