San Diego County's June job outlook continues to improve, even though the overall county unemployment figure doesn't agree. The county added 7,400 jobs from May to June, but the unemployment rate increased to 4.2 percent, from 3.7 percent in May.

Still, June's 4.2 percent rate is below the year-ago estimate of 4.5 percent. The largest county job increases occurred in tourism, construction and retail trade.

Cheryl Mason, labor analyst for the California Employment Development Department, said many county unemployment figures rise during the summer due to more college and high school graduates looking for work. She said the figures were positive in spite of the rate increase.

"I think it looks pretty good (because) the county gained 18,100 jobs compared to last year," Mason said.

During the same time frame, payroll employment in California grew by 11,000 jobs, with the information sector adding the most positions over the month, the state statistics show.

The net payroll job gain in June follows the addition of 15,300 jobs in May, revised up from the 14,800 reported last month. Nationally, the economy added 121,000 payroll jobs in June, up from 75,000 in May.

Payroll employment totals are drawn from a survey of employers and don't include farmworkers and the self-employed.

San Diego County's seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate of 4.2 percent is lower than California's unadjusted rate of 4.9 percent and the U.S. rate of 4.8 percent during the last month, according to the California Employment Development Department.

Unadjusted jobless rates don't account for seasonal employment changes, such as summer or holidays.

Locally, every North County city's unemployment rate dropped compared with last year. Del Mar has the lowest rate, at 2 percent, down from 2.2 percent last year. The lowest figure for North County's larger communities belonged to Carlsbad, with a 2.8 percent rate, down from 2.9 percent last year. Vista scored the biggest area unemployment rate drop, 5.1 percent, compared with 5.5 percent last year.

Mason said Riverside County had one of the highest job growth rates in the state, with a 2 percent gain, compared with the state's rate of 1.4 percent.

In San Diego County, tourism, including jobs in leisure and hospitality, led the way with 2,600 new jobs created in the last month. Leisure and hospitality represents jobs in areas such as hotels and restaurants. Construction created the second-highest number of new jobs with 1,400, due to an increased demand for electricians, carpenters and other trade positions.

A surprising job increase in clothing and clothing accessory stores -- a gain of 800 jobs -- happened because many stores held June sales, Mason said.

Another surprise occurred in manufacturing, which broke a three-month downturn to gain 300 jobs. Mason said increased hiring in computer and electronic product manufacturing led the growth.

Contact staff writer Patrick Wright at (760) 739-6675 or pwright@nctimes.com.