Manteca’s unemployment rate has finally slipped below 14 percent.

Two hundred more Manteca residents found work in September to push the unemployment rate down to 13.4 percent. It is the first time since August 2009 that Manteca’s jobless level has been below 14 percent. It’s been 49 months since the unemployment rates was below 10 percent. From 1990 to 2006, Manteca’s jobless rate hovered between 6.5 and 7.5 percent.

Manteca’s highest jobless benchmark was 15.8 percent in 2010 for the highest level since the Great Depression.

The state Economic Development Department jobs numbers released Friday means some 1,100 Manteca residents landed jobs in August and September. That has pushed the unemployment rate down by almost 2 percent in 61 days going from 15.3 percent in July to 13.4 percent last month.

The labor force report issued by the state reflects 24,000 Manteca residents with jobs and 3,700 who are unemployed.

San Joaquin County’s overall jobless rate is 15.4 percent. That reflects 254,500 people working and 46,200 people – the combined population of Ripon, Lathrop, and Escalon – looking for jobs.

While the county labor market has improved, Manteca and much of the county is also benefitting from employment opportunities picking up in the Silicon Valley as well as Pleasanton-Livermore.

The California jobless rate dropped down to 11.9 percent in September from 12.1 percent is September. That reflects 85,000 more people going to work swelling the number of jobs statewide to 15.9 million.

Nationally, the jobless rate remained at 9.1 percent.

The jobless rate in August for Ripon was 10.8 percent down from 11.3 percent, in Lathrop it was at 12.5 percent down from 13.1 percent, in Escalon it was at 14.2 percent down from 14.8 percent, in Tracy it was at 9.6 percent down from 10.1 percent, in Stockton it was 18.5 percent down from 19.3 percent, and in Lodi it was at 11.7 percent down from 12.2 percent.