Austin’s unemployment rate continues to hang at or just above its pre-recession level.

The city’s jobless rate was 4.9 percent in July, according to data released last week by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. That’s below the 5.3 percent from July 2012, but just above the 4.8 percent in July 2008, and it was between 4 and 4.5 percent for much of 2007. All numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

There were 664 Austin residents looking for work last month out of a labor force of 12,944.

In Mower County, the jobless rate was 4.6 percent, below the 4.9 percent in July 2012.

There were 983 Mower County residents looking for work, or 319 outside of Austin. Mower’s rate is lower than Fillmore’s (4.8), Dodge’s (4.9) and Freeborn’s (5.1), but higher than Olmsted’s, which was 4.2.

The July jobless rate was 4.3 percent in Rochester, 4.9 in Owatonna, 5.7 in Albert Lea, and 5.9 in Winona.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Minnesota for July was 5.2 percent, unchanged from June. Minnesota continued its long streak of outperforming the national jobless rate, which in July was 7.4 percent. The national average was the lowest it has been since it was 7.3 in December 2008.