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Sacramento Area's Unemployment Dips Below 10 Percent

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The Sacramento region's unemployment rate dipped to its lowest level in four years last month, but is it sustainable long term with some major employers announcing cuts?

According to the Employment Development Department, the four-county Sacramento Metropolitan Statistical Area - made up of Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties - had a 9.7 percent unemployment rate in September. That compares to 10.3 in August and 11.5 in September 2011.

The unemployment rate was 9.0 percent in El Dorado County, 8.8 percent in Placer County, 10.2 percent in Sacramento County and 9.0 percent in Yolo County.

The region added 2,400 jobs from August to September and 17,200 from year to year, according to the EDD.

Three health care organizations hired the most workers in the region last month. They were Sutter Health (735), Catholic Healthcare West (705) and Kaiser Permanente (249).

However, the long-term health of the region could be impacted by recent developments. The Campbell Soup Company announced it's shutting down its Sacramento plant in 2013, a loss of 700 jobs, and Comcast also said it's closing its Natomas call center, eliminating 300 jobs.

Those announcements followed news that Waste Connections is moving its headquarters from Folsom to Texas, costing the region another 130 jobs.

The biggest month-to-month sector gain in the EDD report was local government, which added 3,200 jobs.

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