Preliminary April labor force data counts for San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties pegs the unemployment rate at 8.5%, 7.6% and 8.2% respectively, down 0.6 percentage points in San Francisco, 0.4 percentage points in Marin and 0.2 percentage points in San Mateo.
On a revised basis, the number of unemployed in San Francisco fell by 3,000 in April (from 41,400 to 38,400) as the number of employed fell by 800 (from 412,600 to 411,800) and the labor force contracted by 3,800 (from 454,000 to 450,200).
Overall unadjusted California unemployment fell to 11.7% as the labor force increased by 8,400 workers and the ranks of the unemployed fell by 115,500.
∙ Monthly Labor Force Data for Counties: April 2011 (Preliminary) [EDD]
∙ San Francisco County Unemployment Holds At 9.1% In March [SocketSite]
Yea! We lost 800 jobs, but even more people than that, 3800, got discouraged and gave up.
The result, statistics that realtors can use to show that the local economy is improving!
Give it a rest. A few years ago you were on and on about how the population was shrinking late last decade too. You think anybody takes your words at face value about any single thing you might write at this stage?
The population might not be shrinking, but the total number of employed certainly is. A healthy city can’t have employment shrink month over month.
That said, this doesn’t impact home prices in a place like San Francisco.
Take me for example — I left my job in San Francisco and now work in Mountain View. I take the Caltrain and get on at 22nd and Pennslyvania.
I decided to start counting how many people do the same thing I do — yesterday morning, at 7:00am, I counted 154 people getting on at 22nd street station alone with another 175 or so having left 5 mins earlier from 4th and King.
San Francisco is pretty and will, over time be more residential and touristy and without substantial industry.
I don’t disagree, but I was speaking to trolling baitred from the site’s Guru of hate. The notion that anyone needs to spin an idea that the local economy is improving, as if that is somehow fiction. It’s pretty obvious to anybody who actually cares, and whose sole purpose is not merely being a troll on the internet, that the local economy is improving lately.
“Take me for example — I left my job in San Francisco and now work in Mountain View. I take the Caltrain and get on at 22nd and Pennslyvania.”
While I’m not 100%, I’d guess that you would still count as employed in the above situation. I think the survey is statewide and the county data is by place of residence.
The “unemployed” category is typically only people who are collecting unemployment insurance. So excludes people who are not seeking work, have exhausted benefits or were not eligible.
The month-over-month comparisons are tricky since these numbers aren’t seasonally adjusted, and employment in many sectors is seasonal. Here are the preliminary April “employed” numbers for the last few years:
Year SanFrancisco SanMateo SantaClara
2008 419,400 369,200 820,000
2009 412,900 354,300 795,200
2010 411,400 336,500 776,100
2011 411,800 337,200 784,200
It’s pretty clear that the number of employed is down from 2008 (2007 and prior data wasn’t available for this series), but it seems that the rate of job losses has slowed. Is this a plateau before a double dip? Is this an inflection point before a surge in hiring? Will Facebook and LinkedIn cause gold to spurt forth from every Bay Area faucet?
Another caveat to keep in mind is that the preliminary employment numbers often diverge significantly from the final numbers, which you can find here:
http://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/cgi/dataanalysis/areaselection.asp?tablename=labforce
PostIt,
You a cycling enthusiast? You remind me of someone.
SJ
Mark: San Francisco is pretty and will, over time be more residential and touristy and without substantial industry.
Uh, not so much. Recent headline:
S.F. tech jobs climb near level of dot-com peak
“The city had an estimated 32,180 tech jobs last year, compared with 34,116 in 2000, according to an analysis of state employment data by real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle. In 2004, the number of tech jobs had fallen to 18,210.”
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-03-27/business/29193862_1_tech-jobs-tech-employment-tech-firms
Sunny Jim-
I bike to work every once in a while, but I wouldn’t call myself a cycling enthusiast! 🙂