Payroll gains throughout the regional economy pushed Riverside County’s unemployment rate below 4 percent last month, state officials reported Friday.
The jobless rate in April, based on preliminary estimates, was 3.8 percent, compared to 4.6 percent in March, according to the California Employment Development Department.
The rate was two-tenths of a percentage point lower than the year-ago level, when countywide unemployment stood at 4 percent even.
The record low for the county was set in May 2018, when the unemployment rate dropped to 3.7 percent.
Roughly 41,300 residents were out of work in April, and 1,039,500 were employed, according to the EDD.
The unincorporated community of Cabazon had the highest unemployment rate countywide at 8.6 percent, followed by Coachella at 7.8 percent and the unincorporated community of Highgrove at 6.6 percent.
The combined unemployment rate for Riverside and San Bernardino counties in April was 3.7 percent, down from 4.5 percent in March.
Bi-county data indicated payrolls expanded by the widest margin in the construction sector, which added an estimated 3,100 positions.
Additional gains were recorded in the public, health services, educational services, professional business services, agricultural and retail trade sectors, as well as miscellaneous unclassified industries, which altogether expanded by 8,800 jobs, according to the EDD.
Payrolls contracted in the leisure and hospitality, financial services and manufacturing sectors, which lost an aggregate 1,000 positions.
The state’s non-seasonally-adjusted jobless rate in April was 3.9 percent, according to the EDD.