The Colorado Springs area job market continued to send mixed signals in July, with unemployment edging higher from June to 8.2 percent, but payrolls rising from the previous month for the first time in nine months.

The 8.2 percent rate, which is adjusted for seasonal changes, matches February’s rate as the highest since 2000, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported Friday. The rate in three of the previous four months was 8.1 percent. Comparisons to periods before 2000 cannot be made because the department didn’t calculate a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the Springs area during the 1990s.

Area payrolls last month fell 3.8 percent — or nearly 10,000 jobs — from a year earlier to 249,100, but were up from the previous month for the first time since October and only the second time since May 2008. Most of the gains from the previous month came in construction, retailing, tourism and the federal government, though only the health care industry and the federal government employed more people last month than a year earlier.

The statewide unemployment rate rose to a 22-year high of 7.8 percent in July from 7.6 percent in June. Local and statewide unemployment rates are calculated from a survey of residents, while payroll numbers come from a survey of businesses. Most of the state’s payroll gains from the previous month came in construction, retailing and professional services.