BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Friday, 23ABC learned that September's unemployment rate in Kern County was 12.4%, unchanged from August.

This time last year, the local unemployment rate was 6.2%, according to numbers released by the state's Employment Development Department.

Due to the pandemic, the country has seen a record number of unemployment claims.

Across the country, the unemployment rate is sitting at just under 11%, while California's is just under 8%.

23ABC spoke with Garro Ellis from money-wise to break down what these numbers mean.

"The continuing claims, which is those that were on unemployment, and continue to be on unemployment, they went down a little bit. So that's encouraging heading into the december time period esepecially with retail," said Ellis.

Ellis also explained that numbers in California remained constant.

He contributes those numbers to the statewide system shutdown for new EDD claims.