Beacon Economics Report-Unemployment–Pitiful! Bay area a bright spot!

Are We Standing Still? California Still Among Most Unemployed States; Minimal Job Gains Posted

• Small Job Gains for California: For the fifth month in a row, California has gained jobs – bringing the total number to nearly 96,000 new jobs over the past 5 months. But while the number sounds good, it represents less than a 1% increase from the trough in December. When put into perspective, the current gains are a drop in the bucket compared to the 1,400,000 jobs the state lost between July 2007 and last December.
• Regional Trends: All of the metropolitan regions in the San Francisco Bay Area posted declining unemployment rates this past month indicating that the region as a whole is on the road to recovery. Many Southern California regions are also posting falling unemployment rates with the notable exception of Los Angeles County which posted a 0.1% increase. Other regions of the state are posting mixed results (please click the Beacon Employment Report link below to see California’s full regional breakdowns on our interactive map). 

Contact Beacon’s Experts for Comment:

Christopher Thornberg            310.739.3286
 Jon Haveman                          415.336.5705
 Brad Kemp                              310.592.3276

Victoria Pike Bond
Director of Communications
415-457-6030 (office)
415-488-7195 (cell)

www.BeaconEcon.com

Beacon Economics’ interactive monthly employment report processes data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and data generated and released by the California Employment Development Department (EDD) on the third Friday of every month. Beacon Economics reproduces EDDs data by major MSA in California on a seasonally adjusted basis to facilitate month-to-month comparisons.