Unemployment in Pasadena fell to 4.7% in July and Altadena’s rate held at 4.6%, each about a percentage point below where it stood a year earlier, according to preliminary figures released Friday by the California Employment Development Department.
Both communities remained below Los Angeles County, where 5.2% of the labor force was unemployed in July on the same not-seasonally-adjusted basis. On the seasonally adjusted basis the state uses for its headline county figure, the county rate dipped to 5.3% from 5.4% in June and was down from 5.6% in July 2025.
In Pasadena, 3,600 residents were counted as unemployed out of a labor force of 76,500, with 72,900 working. A year earlier the city’s rate was 5.7%, with 4,500 unemployed in a labor force of 78,700. June’s rate was 4.8%.
Altadena had 1,000 unemployed residents in a labor force of 21,100, with 20,100 employed. In July 2025 the community’s rate was 5.5%, with 1,200 unemployed in a labor force of 21,600. Both the number of unemployed Altadena residents and the size of the community’s labor force declined over the year.
Sierra Madre posted the lowest rate of the three communities at 1.9%, with 100 residents unemployed in a labor force of 5,900. South Pasadena was at 4.5% and East Pasadena at 2.8%.
The city and community estimates are not adjusted for seasonal patterns, so those rates are not directly comparable to the adjusted county and statewide figures.
The figures reflect the week that included July 12, the reference week the federal household survey uses each month. The unemployment rate comes from a survey of about 4,400 California households, while the payroll counts come from a separate federal survey of about 80,000 California businesses.
Countywide, total nonfarm employment fell by 40,700 between June and July on an unadjusted basis, to 4,579,600 from 4,620,300. Government accounted for 33,100 of the decline, including 27,900 in local government, and private educational services shed 9,300. Adjusted for seasonal patterns, county payrolls were 4,613,400 in July, compared with 4,615,200 in June.
Statewide, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.1% in July, down from 5.2% in June and 5.5% in July 2025. California payrolls totaled 18,133,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, a loss of 20,500 from June. In Orange County, the unadjusted July rate was 4.2%.
Nationally, the unemployment rate was 4.1% in July, down from 4.2% in June and 4.3% a year earlier, even as payrolls fell by 23,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The labor force participation rate was 61.4%, little changed over the month.
Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, said of the national report that “the labor market is not out of the woods quite yet.”
Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank, said the national job market “is still tightening due to a shrinking labor force.”
The July estimates for Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre are preliminary and subject to revision. Federal statisticians are scheduled to publish a preliminary benchmark revision to national payroll data on Aug. 28.
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