Beacon Employment Report California

California’s labor market continued to expand at a steady pace in September, with total nonfarm employment in the state expanding by 47,400 positions, according to an analysis released jointly with Beacon Economics. This growth accounted for 24.4% of overall job gains in the nation in September. Note that August’s gains were revised down to 94,700 in the latest numbers, a 9,600 decrease from the preliminary estimate of 104,300.

“Job gains in California continue to show strength relative to the nation overall, but while these gains have been solid, there is still a sizable hole in the labor market, with a million fewer people employed than pre-pandemic,” said Taner Osman, Research Manager at the Center for Forecasting and Beacon Economics. “Some states, by contrast, have already recovered all of the jobs lost due to the pandemic.”

While California has added jobs at a healthy rate in 2021, as of September, there were 991,000 fewer people employed in the state than in February 2020. Total nonfarm employment in California has contracted 5.6% since February compared to a 3.3% drop nationally. As a result, with a larger portion of its workforce still to be recovered, California should continue to see more rapid growth relative to the nation in the coming months.

California’s unemployment rate held steady at 7.5% in September, unchanged from the previous month, and the state’s labor force expanded by 30,500. California’s unemployment rate remains elevated relative to the 4.8% rate in the United States overall. Since February 2020, the state’s labor force has fallen by 419,700 workers, a 2.2% decline.

The Beacon Employment Report | California is a unique analysis of California’s employment numbers and trends. Each month, we link our own econometric predictions to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the California Employment Development Department to identify important changes in employment across industries and regions. The Beacon Employment Report is also one of the few analyses that uses seasonally adjusted numbers, which are critical to revealing accurate trends and insights within data. The analysis is a sample of the kind of research available from the Center for Economic Forecasting and Development.