Summertime layoffs at local schools hit hard in July, helping to push Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate up to 5.5% from 5.3% in June and knocking more than 30,000 jobs off of employer payrolls in the county.

Those are the key takeaways from the state Employment Development Department’s monthly release on Aug. 16 of unemployment and payroll data for L.A. County.

The county’s 5.5% unemployment rate is the highest since March 2022, when the county was still in recovery mode from the pandemic-induced shutdown of huge swaths of the local economy. Last year, the July unemployment rate stood at 4.9%.

The rate rose in large part because the labor force – including residents looking for work – swelled by 22,000 jobs in July to reach 5,042,000.  Among those looking for work were thousands of teachers – especially substitute teachers – teaching assistants and administrative support staff at local schools.

The rate was significantly higher than the statewide average for July of 5.2% and way above the national average of 4.3%.

The Employment Development Department also released a breakout of July unemployment rates by city, though unlike the countywide average, these are not adjusted for seasonal factors. The rates for the two largest cities in the county – Los Angeles and Long Beach – were identical at 6.6%.

Among cities with labor forces exceeding 10,000, Lomita had the lowest unemployment rate of 2.7% in July, while Calabasas had the highest rate at 9.2% – roughly one out of every 11 residents.

Among cities in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Antelope and Conejo valleys with labor forces exceeding 10,000, the city of San Fernando had the lowest unemployment rate in July of 5.0%, followed by Glendale and Santa Clarita (both at 6.2%).

At the high end in the quad-valley area, after Calabasas and its 9.2% unemployment rate in July, next were Palmdale (8.9%) and Lancaster (8.8%). Burbank’s rate came in at 7.8%.

Turning to employer payrolls, July was a grim month as employers in the county slashed nearly 31,000 jobs, bringing the total number of payroll employees down to 4,558,000. But this number carries an asterisk as all of that total and more – 35,000 job cuts – came from the education sector, with almost all of those cuts from K-12 schools.

These cuts are to be expected every summer as tens of thousands of people in the education sector – including substitute teachers – work on year-to-year contracts that expire with the end of the academic and government fiscal year in June. Many of those get rehired with the start of the next academic year.

The state Employment Development Department takes all of this into account as it releases seasonally adjusted payroll data. Comparing the seasonally adjusted figure for July with June, payroll employment actually rose by 5,800 jobs.

Returning to the unadjusted data, besides education, the other industry reporting significant job losses in July was motion picture/sound recording, which shed 3,600 jobs. This follows several months of gains as the industry recovered from the twin strikes of last year.

The sector reporting the biggest gain in payroll jobs in June was accommodation/food services, up by 3,000. Construction also recorded a substantial gain of 1,500 payroll jobs.

For the 12 months ending in July, county payrolls increased by nearly 74,000 jobs for a growth rate of 1.6% from the same 12-month stretch a year earlier.

Healthcare/social assistance was the biggest job-gainer for that 12-month period, adding 33,000 jobs. Accommodation/food services was next (up 14,300 jobs), followed by private educational services (up 12,300 jobs).

On the downside, professional/business services shed the most jobs during the 12-month period ending in July (down 5,500), with all of that decrease and more coming from the employment services subsector, which includes temporary employment firms.

Another sector recording payroll job drops during that time was manufacturing, which on net shed 2,900 jobs. The total of 315,000 employed in manufacturing in July was down more than 60% from the 821,000 jobs in that sector in July 1990.