Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate dropped to 10.4% in July from 10.6% in June even as employers reported 11,100 fewer jobs on their payrolls due in large part to summer recess at schools, according to data released Aug. 20.

The state Employment Development Department said 11,000 more county residents reported they were working last month, while the labor force remained stable at about 5.11 million. That drove the unemployment rate down two notches

A year ago, the county’s unemployment rate was a stratospheric 17.5% as the region was only just starting to open up after the initial pandemic lockdown. But the rate still has a long way to go before reaching July 2019’s pre-pandemic level of 4.5%.

And L.A. County’s unemployment rate for July is still substantially higher than the 7.6% recorded statewide and the 5.4% nationwide figure.

The EDD also released a breakdown of unemployment rates for cities within the county. The two largest cities, Los Angeles and Long Beach, posted rates of 10.2% and 10.7%, respectively. Among cities with at least 10,000 people in the labor force, Lancaster had the highest unemployment rate of 13.9% while Lomita had the lowest at 5.5%.

Meanwhile, employers in L.A. County reported 11,100 fewer jobs on their payrolls in July than in June. The main culprit: a loss of about 41,000 payroll jobs at K-12 schools, colleges and universities and private schools as summer recess kicked into full gear.

The EDD releases another payroll jobs figure that adjusts for seasonal factors, especially summer recess in the education sector. That seasonally adjusted figure for July showed payroll job growth from June of 26,600, roughly in line with the June growth from May.

Outside of the education sector, accommodation/food services gained 11,400 payroll jobs between June and July, followed by professional and business services (up 6,400 jobs) and arts/entertainment/recreation (up 6,300 jobs).

Construction payroll jobs dropped by 2,700 between June and July, followed by manufacturing with a drop of 1,200 jobs.

The 4.2 million total payroll jobs for July reflected a gain of about 352,000 jobs since the worst of the pandemic lockdown in April 2020. But that’s down about 425,000 jobs from February 2020, the peak month before the lockdown, and down 304,000 from July 2019, showing the county still has a long way to go to reach pre-pandemic payroll job levels.

Since July of last year, the county gained a net 243,000 payroll jobs for an increase of 6.1%, a faster growth rate than the 5.2% reported between June 2020 and this past June.

The accommodation/food services sector gained the most payroll jobs over the past year at 74,000, followed by arts/entertainment/recreation (up 33,000 jobs) and professional/business services (up 31,000 jobs). The motion picture/sound recording industry gained 23,000 payroll jobs over the past year as film and television production sets have mostly reopened.

Government and manufacturing were the only two sectors to report drops in payroll jobs, each shedding a net 3,000 over the past year. The decrease in government payrolls includes the substantial seasonal drops in K-12 and public higher education.