California employers added 54,200 jobs in May, one of the largest monthly gains in the past year, according to federal data.
The state's unemployment rate edged up to 6.4% -- slightly higher than 6.3% in April, but significantly down from a rate of 7.6% a year earlier. The national unemployment rate is 5.5%.
The unemployment rate is based on a separate survey of households. Those numbers showed a slight uptick in the number of unemployed people across the state, alongside overall growth in the labor force.
California has seen nearly four years of consecutive monthly job increases, and the state has added jobs at a rate of 3% over the past year -- faster than the national average of 2.