Bay Area Employment Slips

While the number of people living in San Francisco with a paycheck typically ticks up by a few thousand in October with seasonal hiring for the holidays, net employment actually slipped by 700 last month to 564,300. But with 700 people having left the local labor force as well, the unemployment rate held at 2.1 percent.

And while there are 29,200 more employed residents in San Francisco than there were at the same time last year, and 85,600 more employed than there were in April of 2020, when the pandemic-driven unemployment rate peaked at 13.0 percent, there are still 6,500 fewer employed residents in the city than there were prior to the pandemic and 7,300 fewer people in the labor force (576,600) and both of those numbers have atypically inched down over the past quarter.

The number of East Bay residents with a paycheck slipped by 1,800 in September to 1,536,800, representing 51,700 more employed residents than at the same time last year and 233,100 more employed than in April of 2020, but still 22,700 fewer employed residents than prior to the pandemic with 23,100 fewer people in the labor force.

Employment in San Mateo County slipped by 600 in October but ticked up by 1,100 in Santa Clara for a net gain of 500 and 70,300 more employed people in the Valley (1,484,400) than there were at the same time last year, over 222,000 more employed than in April of 2020, and 6,300 more employed residents in the Valley than there were prior to the pandemic for an unemployment rate of 2.1 percent.

Employment across Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties dropped by 2,600 last month to 437,800, representing 7,900 more employed residents spread across the northern counties than there were at the same time last year, and 70,800 more employed residents than in April of 2020, but there are still 15,900 fewer employed residents than there were prior to the pandemic with 17,300 fewer people in the combined labor force (449,100) for an unemployment rate of 2.5 percent.

Overall, the total number of Bay Area residents with a job inched down by 4,600 in October to 4,023,300. And while last month’s change was effectively a rounding error, and there are 159,100 more Bay Area residents employed than there were at the same time last year and over 612,000 more employed residents since the second quarter of 2020 with an unemployment rate of 2.6 percent, there are still 38,800 fewer employed Bay Area residents than there were prior to the pandemic having hit (4,062,100), 45,900 fewer people in the labor force (4,023,300) and Bay Area employment typically ticks up by around 20,000 people in October with seasonal hiring versus having just slipped.