Bay Area Employment Actually Dropped Again in January

While the unemployment rate in San Francisco inched down from 6.4 percent in December to 6.3 percent in January, prior to the State’s Stay Home Order having been lifted at the end of the month, the drop was once again driven by a reduction in the local labor force versus an increase in employment.

In fact, the number of people living in San Francisco with a paycheck dropped by 4,800 in January to 501,900, representing 65,100 fewer employed residents than in January of last year, with 45,300 fewer people in the labor force (535,400), for the unemployment rate of 6.3 percent (versus 2.4 percent at the same time last year).

At the same time, while the unemployment rate across the East Bay inched down from 7.7 percent in December to 7.5 percent in January, and versus 3.3 percent at the same time last year, the number of employed residents slipped by 5,500 to 1,422,000 while the labor force was down by 8,900 to 1,537,900 (representing 64,000 fewer people than at the same time last year).

Employment dropped in both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in January as well, ending the month with 125,600 fewer people employed across the two counties (1,343,300) than at the start of last year, with 82,400 fewer people in the labor force (1,424,700) for an average unemployment rate of 5.7 percent.

Year-over-year employment was down by a combined 47,700 people across Marin, Napa and Sonoma in January with 31,900 fewer people in the labor force (430,500) for an average unemployment rate of 7.1 percent.

And as such, while the unemployment rate across the Bay Area inched down from 6.7 percent in December to 6.6 percent in January, versus 2.9 percent at the same time last year, there were actually 19,500 fewer people employed (3,668,200) than in December, but with 25,400 fewer people in the labor force (3,928,500) and 223,600 fewer people in the labor force, and 365,100 fewer employed, than at the same time last year.