The Bay Area produced several thousand jobs during September, a hiring upswing that was robust enough to account for nearly half of all the employment gains in all of California last month, a new report shows.
All three of the Bay Areas major metro areas, the South Bay, East Bay and the San Francisco-San Mateo region, gained jobs last month, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.
The Bay Area added 6,700 jobs in September on the heels of a revised increase of 1,400 positions in the region in August, the EDD reported.
Good news on the job front, said Steve Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. Our economy is still struggling but lower interest rates and inflation should foster positive growth ahead.
The upswing in the Bay Area in September was a welcome counterpoint to what had been a trend toward paltry job growth over the summer.
The Bay Area labor market appears to have found its second wind, said Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist with BMO Capital Markets. This is a trend we are also seeing around much of the country.
During September, the San Francisco-San Mateo region added 2,800 jobs, the East Bay gained 2,500 positions and the South Bay added 200 jobs, according to the state labor agencys report. The numbers were all adjusted for seasonal variations.
California added a feeble 14,700 jobs in September, according to the state government release.
Last months job gains in California were well below the average of 22,100 jobs per month that the state produced over the one-year period that ended in September.
This continues the declining job growth numbers of the past four months in California, said Michael Bernick, an employment attorney with law firm Duane Morris and a former director of the state EDD.
The employment gains in California were so feeble that the Bay Area produced nearly 46% of the jobs added statewide in September.
Were holding steady in the Bay Area, said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a San Jose-based think tank. The long-term direction is modestly upward. Thats actually an achievement because its happening against a backdrop of downsizing in the tech sector.
The statewide unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.3%.
For more than two years, Californias jobless rate has been trending steadily higher since reaching an all-time low of 3.8% in August 2022.
In what could be an encouraging trend ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season, retailers added jobs at a brisk pace during September, according to a Beacon Economics analysis of the EDD report.
Here is how several key industries in the Bay Area fared in terms of adding or losing jobs during September, according to information that Beacon Economics provided to this news organization that was based on its assessment of the EDD figures. Beacons industry figures accounted for seasonal volatility:
Retailers added 1,800 jobs in the Bay Area last month. The South Bay, East Bay and San Francisco-San Mateo region each gained hundreds of retail jobs.
The tech industry increased employment by a net total of 1,500 jobs. Tech companies added 1,400 jobs in the San Francisco-San Mateo region and added 500 positions in the East Bay. The tech sector cut employment by a net 600 jobs in the South Bay.
Hotels and restaurants added 600 Bay Area jobs. Hotel and restaurant employers added 600 East Bay jobs and 100 Sonoma County positions, but also chopped 100 jobs in the San Francisco-San Mateo metro area.
The healthcare industry shed 600 jobs in September. The biggest losses in this sector last month came in the East Bay, which lost 500 healthcare jobs.
The Bay Areas aggregate gain of 8,100 jobs in August and September overcame losses of 200 jobs in June and a decline of 4,700 jobs in July.
Yet even with two months of job increases in the Bay Area, the region isnt necessarily in a robust state, warned Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Economic Institute.
It has been a very sluggish year for job growth in the Bay Area, Bellisario said. We would need to produce a few back-to-back months of meaningful job gains to really believe the economy is heading back to growth mode.
Plus, the Bay Area remains stuck below the record heights it reached in February 2020, the final month before the launch of government-mandated business lockdown to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
Heres how the Bay Area and its three major metro areas compare with where they were they were just ahead of the shutdowns:
The Bay Area has 51,300 fewer jobs than the February 2020 employment totals.
The East Bay has 3,700 more jobs than in February 2020.
The South Bay is 6,000 jobs short of its pre-COVID total.
The San Francisco-San Mateo region is the primary laggard, with a whopping shortfall of 46,000 jobs.
The region still has significant ground to make up in terms of its post-pandemic recovery, Bellisario said.
Other experts believe the Bay Area must contend with uneven growth for some time.
Why? Despite the hype that surrounds artificial intelligence, its not clear whether AI companies will produce huge numbers of jobs in the immediate future.
Given our high housing prices, and the newfound ability for tech companies to distribute their workforce, its an open question whether well see explosive growth in our region again, Hancock said. I think were looking at halting, incremental growth for the foreseeable future.