The rate of unemployment in greater St. Louis is not getting any better. Nor, for that matter, is it getting any worse.

Adjusted for seasonal employment, 9.5 percent of the work force in the metropolitan area was out of a job in July, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. 

The July numbers represent a one-tenth of percentage point improvement from June.

Unemployment regionally dropped to 9.7 percent in May following a 12-month period when joblessness here averaged 10.3 percent.

Joblessness in St. Louis continues to closely parallel national trends. Unemployment nationally was 9.7 percent in July. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the August figures on Friday. 

The St. Louis Fed provides its adjusted unemployment rate to coincide with the monthly BLS release of unadjusted  job data for 372 metropolitan areas.

The BLS survey pegged area unemployment here at 10.1 percent in July.

The Federal Reserve and BLS measurements do not take displaced workers who have stopped searching for jobs into account.

Still, the BLS reports that businesses across the region added 7,800 non-farm jobs over the 12 months beginning in July, 2009.

Nationally, the BLS said unemployment increased from July to July in 198 of the 372 metro areas measured in its monthly survey.

The agency reported, however, a decrease in the  number of regions with jobless rates exceeding 10 percent.