In August, Placer County had the lowest unemployment rate, 4.9 percent, in the Sacramento-Roseville, Calif. Combined Statistical Area, followed by Nevada County, at 5.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Richard J. Holden, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that Sutter County registered the highest jobless rate in the area, at 8.7 percent. Six of the seven counties in the Sacramento area had unemployment rates that were at or above the U.S. rate of 5.2 percent. (See chart 1. The Technical Note at the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definition. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

In August, all seven Sacramento area counties had over-the-year unemployment rate declines, with the declines ranging from 2.1 percentage points in Yuba County to 1.3 points in Nevada County. Nationally, the unemployment rate fell 1.1 percentage points from August a year ago. (See table A.)

Table A. Unemployment rates for the United States and counties in the Sacramento-Roseville, Calif. Combined Statistical Area, August 2015, not seasonally adjusted

Area	Unemployment rate			Change from
	August 2013	August 2014	August 2015	August 2013 to August 2015(1)	August 2014 to August 2015(1)
United States	7.3	6.3	5.2	-2.1	-1.1
Sacramento-Roseville, Calif. Combined Statistical Area	8.8	7.3	5.9	-2.9	-1.4
El Dorado County	8.2	6.8	5.3	-2.9	-1.5
Nevada County	7.6	6.5	5.2	-2.4	-1.3
Placer County	7.6	6.3	4.9	-2.7	-1.4
Sacramento County	8.9	7.4	5.9	-3.0	-1.5
Sutter County	12.4	10.7	8.7	-3.7	-2.0
Yolo County	8.5	7.3	5.9	-2.6	-1.4
Yuba County	12.1	10.4	8.3	-3.8	-2.1
Footnotes: (1) Data for the Sacramento-Roseville, Calif. Combined Statistical Area and its components are preliminary for the most recent month.

Unemployment rates fell in all Sacramento area counties from August 2013 to August 2015. The largest decreases occurred in Yuba County, 3.8 percentage points, followed by Sutter County, 3.7 points. All area counties posted decreases that exceeded the nationwide decrease of 2.1 percentage points. Sutter County has registered the highest unemployment rate in August for each of the past three years.

Technical Note

This release presents unemployment rate data for states and counties from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program, a federal-state cooperative endeavor.

Definitions. The labor force and unemployment data are based on the same concepts and definitions as those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample survey of households that is conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The LAUS program measures employment and unemployment on a place-of-residence basis.  The universe for each is the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over.  Employed persons are those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as labor-management dispute, illness, or vacation. Unemployed persons are those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on layoff expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed.  The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.

Method of estimation. The LAUS program is a hierarchy of non-survey methodologies for indirectly estimating employment and unemployment in states and local areas. Statewide data are produced through a modeling technique that uses estimates of payroll jobs from the Current Employment Statistics survey and unemployment insurance claims counts from the state workforce agencies to mitigate volatility in the direct CPS tabulations of employment and unemployment, respectively. Data for labor market areas, such as metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions, are produced through a building block approach and adjusted proportionally to state model-based totals. Data for counties within labor market areas are produced through a disaggregation technique. A detailed description of the LAUS estimation procedures is available in chapter 4 of the BLS Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/lau/home.htm.

Annual revisions. Labor force and unemployment data for prior years reflect adjustments made at the end of each year, usually implemented with January estimates. The adjusted estimates reflect updated population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, any revisions in the other data sources, and model reestimation. All substate estimates are reestimated and adjusted to add to the revised model-based estimates.

Area definition. The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, dated February 28, 2013. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Sacramento-Roseville, Calif. Combined Statistical Area includes El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba Counties in California.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone:  (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339.