The number of San Francisco residents with a job dropped by 6,500 in August to 557,800, more than reversing “a seasonally driven increase that could [have misled] some” in July, as we highlighted last month.
And having slipped on a year-over-year basis in July, “representing the first year-over-year decline in employment since the pandemic ended and the post-pandemic recovery began,” employment in San Francisco was down by 8,000 on a year-over-year basis in August, with over 20,000 fewer employed people in San Francisco than there were at the end of 2019, prior to the pandemic and nearly 11,000 fewer people in the local labor force (578,400), despite an unemployment rate of “just 3.6 percent.”
At the same time, the number of employed East Bay residents dropped by 9,800 from July to August and was down by 20,500 on year-over-year basis to 1,515,000, representing the largest year-over-year drop since the pandemic ended, with over 58,000 fewer employed residents than prior to the pandemic, nearly 30,000 fewer people in the labor force (1,587,200) and an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent.
While not completely offsetting July’s seasonal gain, the number of employed residents spread across San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties dropped by 12,300 in August to 1,453,000 and employment was down by 30,100 on a year-over-year basis, with nearly 40,000 fewer employed people in Silicon Valley than there were prior to the pandemic, nearly 15,000 fewer people in the local labor force (1,508,900) and an unemployment rate of 3.7 percent.
Net employment across Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties dropped by 1,900 in August to 437,300 and was down by 3,300 on a year-over-year basis, with over 24,000 fewer employed residents than there were prior to the pandemic and nearly 18,000 fewer people in the combined labor force (454,400) with an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent.
In total, the net number of Bay Area residents with a job (3,963,100) ticked down by 30,500 from July to August and was down by 61,900 on a year-over-year basis, representing the fourth straight month with a year-over-year decline and the largest such decline since the pandemic ended, with over 142,000 fewer employed residents than there were prior to the pandemic and over 73,000 fewer people in the labor force but an unemployment rate of “only 4.0 percent,” none of which should catch any plugged-in readers, other than the most obstinate, easily mislead or delicate, by surprise.
Hi, just came across these stories, interested in the salesforce tower comparisons, which was intriguing. Could you clarify what data series you are using for SF labor force? Was surprised to see a labor force of 575k in SF, very large compared to SF population of 800k+, thanks,
Our Labor Force, Employment and Unemployment figures come from County level data provided by the State of California’s Employment Development Department (EDD).