County unemployment rate back down to 5.1 percent

The San Diego County unemployment rate was down to 5.1 percent in August, an improvement from the 5.4 percent rate of July, which was probably an aberrant spike.

The county added 1700 jobs from July and 42,400 from August of last year, according to the California Employment Development Department. The big gainer in August was education and health services, up 1800 jobs. Local government education jobs had dropped by 9300 jobs in July. It was a seasonal factor, and August's education increase was partly seasonal.

In August, leisure and hospitality jobs were down 1400 jobs.