L.A. County ‘s jobless rate soared in August to 7.9 percent as layoffs continued in the beleaguered construction and finance sectors and seasonal job losses hit local education workers, according to state figures released Friday.

The county’s unemployment rate hit its highest level in nearly 12 years, rising from 7.5 percent in July and 5 percent a year ago, according to the California Employment Development Department.

Statewide, the unemployment rate rose to 7.7 percent in August from a revised 7.4 percent in July and 5.5 percent in August 2007. That’s well above the national unemployment rate of 6.1 percent in August.

Meanwhile, L.A. County payrolls were essentially flat in August, increasing by a mere 800 jobs to 4,071,300 from July levels as a jump in entertainment industry employment offset the education and construction job losses.

However, in the more closely watched year-over-year payroll figures, non-farm payroll employment dropped by 16,800 jobs, or 0.4 percent, as losses in construction, finance and the retail sector offset a gain in health care jobs.

“It’s the continuation of the story we’ve been seeing for several months now: big job losses in the construction and finance sector,” said Eduardo Martinez, economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

The construction industry has shed 10,000 jobs in the past 12 months, while the finance sector has lost nearly 7,000 jobs. However, the drop in retail jobs over the past year is what exceeded expectations.

Martinez said some decline had been expected as the impacts of the federal government stimulus checks faded, but not a drop of 11,500. “This reflects a sharp drop in consumer confidence. People have less access to credit and have had to pull back on home equity lines,” he said.

One bright spot was a sharp jump of 9,000 jobs in the motion picture and sound recording industry between July and August. Apparently, studio executives decided to proceed with film and television productions despite the possibility of an actors’ strike.

However, Martinez noted that year-over-year, entertainment industry employment dropped 3 percent as productions continued to migrate out of the region and some television shows that were cancelled during the writers’ strike were either not replaced or substituted with cheaper reality programming.