By Jonathan Friedman
Associate Editor

June 29, 2016 -- The unemployment rate has been sinking in Santa Monica this year to recent records, according to the California Employment Development Department (EDD).

Preliminary data for May show the rate at 3.6 percent, lower than at any other month in the time frame available on the EDD’s website, which dates back to January 2010.

The rate has been dropping steadily this year, with each month setting a new record low for the time frame beginning in 2010.

Those finalized rates were 4.0 percent in April, 4.3 percent in March and 4.3 percent in February. The unemployment in January was 5.1 percent.

The May mark for Santa Monica was below the national rate of 4.7 percent as well as the rate for Los Angeles County (4.3 percent) and California (5.2 percent).

A city’s unemployment rate is based upon the people who live there, regardless of where they work.

There were approximately 2,000 people designated as unemployed in Santa Monica in May, which the EDD’s website says “includes those individuals who were not working, but were able, available and actively looking for work.”

Although Santa Monica’s unemployment rate went down from April to May, approximately the same number of people (53,800) were working in both months. The beach city has a population estimated at 93,640.

The number of people in the total potential workforce was slightly higher in April, which is the reason for the unemployment rate differences.

Santa Monica’s May 2016 unemployment rate of 3.6 percent was a big drop from the May 2015 rate of 5.8 percent.

The May rate has dropped each year since at least 2010. The May rates were 6.8 percent 2014, 8.1 percent in 2013, 9.1 percent in 2012, 10.1 percent in 2011 and 10.3 percent in 2010.

Santa Monica was ranked in a tie for 54th on the list of Los Angeles County’s 126 cities and unincorporated census-designated areas, with No. 1 having the lowest rate.

Los Angeles County’s highest unemployment rate was in the census-designated area of Val Verde with 8.4 percent. The city with the highest unemployment rate was Compton with 6.7 percent.

The city of Palos Verdes Estates had the county’s lowest unemployment rate with 0.7 percent.

Other unemployment rates in the county of note were the city of Los Angeles with 4.5 percent, Malibu with 2.4 percent, Burbank with 3.5 percent, Manhattan Beach with 1.7 percent, Long Beach with 4.7 percent and Redondo Beach with 2.6 percent.