Jefferson County’s unemployment rate dropped below 5 percent last month, the state Employment Security Department reported Wednesday.
That compares with 5.2 percent joblessness in June and 5.4 percent in July 2004.
July unemployment in Clallam County’s Port Angeles labor market area held steady at 6.1 percent, the same rate as June’s, Employment Security reported. The Clallam jobless rate was 6.5 percent in July 2004.
Statewide, nearly 13,000 new jobs were created last month, the biggest monthly increase in five years. But Washington’s unemployment rate of 5.5 percent in June rose slightly to 5.7 percent in July.
The national rate remained at 5 percent in July.
