Santa Clarita’s employment picture brightened under the summer sun as the city’s jobless rate fell to 6.9 percent in August after hitting 7.3 percent in July.

The half-point spike in Santa Clarita’s unadjusted rate in July was attributed to teachers out of work for the summer. Countywide, most teachers were still jobless in August. Los Angeles county’s public school sector was down by 18,000 jobs during August, and by all rights, Santa Clarita’s unadjusted rate should have remained relatively high.

It didn’t – and the city’s August rate reflected an improvement of 1.1 percent over August 2011.

“The decrease in Santa Clarita’s August 2012 unemployment rate to 6.9 percent – more than a full percentage point from a year ago – is one of the largest decreases we’ve seen  as we recover from the Great Recession,” said Santa Clarita’s assistant city manager, Ken Striplin, who becomes city manager Jan. 1.

“It is encouraging to know our residents are securing employment, which helps support our community’s high quality of life,” Striplin said in a statement. ‘ We will continue to do everything we can to support businesses and new jobs in our community and hope to see our unemployment rate decrease even further in the months ahead.”

While public school jobs were the loss leader for the county in August and trade, transportation and manufacturing were marginally lower, the motion picture business made up for some of the losses by adding 6,000 positions to payrolls. Professional and business services grew by 3,700 jobs, and health care and social assistance added another 2,200.

Los Angeles County’s seasonally adjusted rate improved to 11 percent in August from a revised 11.2 percent in July  and 12.5 percent in August 2011.

California’s seasonally adjusted rate was 10.6 percent in August, versus 10.7 percent in July and 11.9 percent in August 2011. U.S. unemployment stood at 8.1 percent in August, compared to 8.3 percent in July and 9.1 percent a year ago.