Valley unemployment rates in September are trending down across all counties, California’s employment department announced in preliminary figures on Friday.
The Golden State’s unemployment rate sits at 4 percent, according to the California Employment Development Department. The figure is a drop of one-tenth of one percent from September 2018.
San Joaquin Valley counties reported sharp drops in unemployment. The sharpest drop occurred in Fresno County – with more than a half percent cut in the jobless rate – led by 3,500 jobs filled in the public sector.
Meanwhile, the highest jobless rate in the Valley belongs to Tulare County, which sits at a stubborn 7.6 percent for September.
Take a look at each county’s unemployment numbers:
| County | August 2019 Rate | September 2019 Rate | Month-to-Month % change | % change from 2018 |
| Merced | 7.1 | 5.5 | – 1.6 | – 0.5 |
| Madera | 6.4 | 5.0 | – 1.4 | – 0.3 |
| Fresno | 6.5 | 5.3 | – 1.2 | – 0.6 |
| Tulare | 9.2 | 7.6 | – 1.6 | – 0.4 |
| Kings | 6.9 | 5.7 | – 1.2 | – 0.2 |
| Kern | 7.3 | 6.0 | – 1.6 | – 0.5 |
