Some 300 Manteca residents found jobs in April triggering the biggest drop in the city’s unemployment rate in over four years.

The jobless rate dropped a full percentage point from 16.1 percent in March to 15.1 percent in April. There are still 4,100 Mantecans looking for a job while 22,900 residents are employed.

The Manteca unemployment rate had reached a new post World War II high of 16.2 percent in January. It’s been 19 months since the jobless rate was under 14 percent in Manteca. That was in September 2009 when it was at 13.5 percent. The jobless rate in Manteca hasn’t been under 10 percent for four years.

The state’s monthly jobless rate dropped to 11.9 percent in March. It was the first time in four years that the state unemployment rate has dropped below 12 percent. The national unemployment rate in April rose a tenth of a percent was 9 percent.

San Joaquin County’s jobless rate dropped to 17.6 percent in April from 17.9 percent in March. The county jobless rate was 18.4 percent in February of 2010.

Stockton’s jobless rate went from 22 percent in March to 20.7 percent in March.

The jobless rate in April  in Ripon went down to 12.2 percent from 13 percent in March, in Lathrop it was at 14.1 percent down from 15 percent, in Escalon it was 15.9 percent down from 16.2 percent, in Tracy it was 10.9  percent down from 11.7 percent, and in Lodi it was 13.2 percent down from 14.1 percent.

The biggest employment sectors to gain jobs countywide were manufacturing as well as leisure and hospitality with 300 new job gains apiece followed by construction with 200 more jobs.

The only employment category to drop was government with 200 jobs lost. That net number is after 300 local school jobs were shed and the federal government added 100 jobs.

The jobless rate in the Northern San Joaquin Valley is impacted as much by the Bay Area economy as it is by the local economy. The data reflects the number of available adults who are gainfully employed or not within a certain jurisdiction within the county. Overall, the job count reflects positions available in the county although they could be held by non-county residents just like many Bay Area jobs are held by those who live in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.