As we reported in today’s paper, the Bureau of Labor Statistics posted July jobless numbers that show metropolitan St. Louis with its highest unemployment rate since February 1992: 7.2 percent.

But, as any economist will point out, those numbers are not seasonally-adjusted, meaning they don’t take into account the month-to-month variations that can make gauging unemployment a somewhat tricky thing. That means its hard to make comparisons across different months; at best we can compare this July to past ones.

But Howard Wall, a regional economist at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, keeps track of those numbers on a seasonally-adjusted basis. And his findings, which he shared with us, show some good news, and some bad news.

First off, the good: Seasonally adjusted, the nine-county St. Louis metropolitan area had an unemployment rate in July of 6.7 percent, which at least sounds better than 7.2.

But then, the bad: We haven’t seen a seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 6.7 percent or higher since January, 1992, one month earlier than the non-seasonally-adjusted high.