There’s good news and bad news when it comes to the unemployment rate in Kern County.

The good news: joblessness has continued to decline for two months in a row. The California Employment Development Department reports Kern’s jobless rate for the month of May was 8.7%, a 0.3% drop from 9% in April.

The bad news: it’s still up 0.3% from last April, notably higher than that of California and the rest of the United States — which are 4.9% and 4%, respectively.

Kern added jobs in the farming industry and lost workers in the defense industry, however the county added 5300 jobs in all industries in April and May.