Report: Marin, San Mateo counties had Bay Area's lowest jobless rates last month

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA -- Marin and San Mateo counties had the lowest unemployment rates in the Bay Area in September and the region's counties all had levels lower than the average for California, state officials reported Friday.

Marin's unemployed made up only 3.9 percent of its workforce of 145,800 people and San Mateo boasted of just 4.1 percent of its 414,000-person labor pool without jobs, according to the state Employment Development Department.

San Francisco and Napa counties had relatively low jobless rates of 4.4 percent each, with workforces of 499,400 and 80,900, respectively,

In the rest of the Bay Area, Santa Clara County had the next lowest rate at 5.2 percent and a workforce of 945,700 people, the region's largest.

Contra Costa County had a rate of 5.7 percent among its 543,900 combined workers and jobless, as did Alameda County with its pool of 789,800 persons.

In Santa Cruz County, 6.2 percent of its labor pool of 150,900 people were jobseekers.

Solano County had 6.3 percent of its 219,100 workforce without jobs and Monterey County's rate was 6.5 percent of its pool of 225,000 without work.

California's unemployment rate dipped to 7.3 percent in September, compared to 8.8 percent for September 2013, with the number of jobs increasing by 297,000 during the year to 17.3 million people employed, state officials said.

The jobless rate for the United States in September was 5.9 percent, also down from the month last year, officials reported.