Silicon Valley's job market remained stagnant in July, with 76,900 Santa Clara County residents, or 7.6 percent of the workforce, out of work.

The county's unemployment rate was down slightly from a revised 7.8 percent in June, but it was still substantially higher than the national average, which was a seasonally adjusted 5.9 percent in July. For almost all of 2002, the local unemployment rate has hovered at levels higher than at any time since 1983.

``We're kind of stuck here for a while, and if we start coming out of it, it's going to be a crawl,'' said Richard Carlson, an economist and partner at Spectrum Economics.

Statewide, the unemployment rate dipped slightly to 6.3 percent in July from a revised 6.5 percent in June. The state added 7,500 jobs.

Santa Clara County had a net loss of 4,400 jobs from June to July, largely due to seasonal cutbacks in school staffing.

One bright spot was a gain of 600 jobs in business services, the category that includes temporary employment agencies. It was the fifth month in a row of gains in that area. Experts say that increases in temporary hiring can signal that the overall job market is set to improve.

``I'm pleased to see that continuing to show increases of any magnitude,'' said Ruth Kavanagh, a labor market consultant with the Employment Development Department who focuses on Santa Clara County.

So far, though, the increases have been not translated into significant improvements in the overall job market.

Priscilla Azcueta, vice president of professional services for Manpower Staffing Services in San Jose, said her company is seeing increased hiring from some biotech and pharmaceutical companies, but there have been no dramatic changes in overall demand.

``Right now things are just pretty much steady,'' Azcueta said.

Experts said there are still few signs of a recovery in the technology industry, which is critical to Silicon Valley's job market.

``There's nothing on the horizon immediately that would say we should be expecting a near-term turnaround in the tech sector,'' said Sean Randolph, president of the Bay Area Economic Forum. ``Certainly there are better expectations and more hope for 2003.''

The experiences of local job hunters reflect this.

``The improvement is very slow,'' said Nalini Jensen of Cupertino, who has been looking for a Web development job for about six months. She has had some interviews, but so far none have turned into jobs. ``People are still waiting to see if the economy is going to pick up.''

Patti Wilson, principal and founder of The Career Co., said many of the people who are finding new jobs are looking outside the technology industry.

``That's the awful awareness that's dawned on people: that this isn't going to go away for a long time, that we might have to do something else,'' Wilson said.