California sees 9th-slowest jobs recovery in U.S.

California’s pandemic-era jobs recovery is the ninth-slowest in the nation, according to March employment stats.

My trusty spreadsheet, filled with a federal tabulation of state-by-state hiring trends, shows California still has the nation’s No. 1 job market with 16 million workers last month. That’s followed by Texas at 12.4 million and New York at 8.8 million.

But when you compare these job counts with February 2020, before coronavirus throttled the economy, California in March was at just 92.7% of its pre-pandemic employment levels. Only eight states have recovered a smaller share of their jobs.

The slowest job recovery was seen in Hawaii with 84.2% of February 2020’s employment, followed by New York at 90.3% and Vermont at 91.3%. The best performing job markets are in Idaho with 103.2% of pre-pandemic employment, Utah at 101.6% and Montana at 99.8%.

As for unemployment rates, California ranked fourth-highest in the nation at 8.4% in March. No. 1 was New York at 9.6% followed by Connecticut and Hawaii at 8.5%. The lowest jobless rate was found in New Hampshire and Vermont at 3.3%, and then South Dakota at 3.4%.

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California suffered the sixthlargest jump in unemployment in a year — up 3.9 points to 8.4%. No. 1 was Hawaii at 6.4 points to 8.5%; New York at 5.5 points to 9.6%; and Connecticut at 4.2 points to 8.5%. Smallest gains? South Dakota, up 0.1 points to 3.4% then New Hampshire, up 0.2 points to 3.3%.

Of course, there’s political debate behind the numbers. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has been criticized for strict business limitations that throttled the state’s economy and its job market. He’s likely to face a recall election.

But please note that the “stay at home” mandates saved lives. Since the start of the pandemic, California’s per-capita rate of COVID-19 deaths was better than 29 other states.

PS: On a national basis, politically speaking, blue states — those with Democratic governors — are at 92% of pre-pandemic employment. “Red” states — those with Republican governors — are at 95%.