California's jobless rate steady at 10.7 percent

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s jobless rate remained unchanged at 10.7 percent in July as the state saw slow employment growth, adding a little more than 25,000 jobs.

The figure released Friday by the state Employment Development Department is an improvement over California’s 11.9 percent unemployment rate a year ago but also is a sign of the state’s slow recovery. The national unemployment rate was 8.3 percent in July.

An accompanying federal survey of households shows a slight dip in the number of employed people compared to June. But the number of Californians who had jobs in July, 16.4 million, was 277,000 more than the same period a year ago.

Jobs were added in July to the government sector, financial and professional services, education, health care and the hospitality industry. The construction, manufacturing, transportation and information sectors saw job losses.