Bay Area hiring slump is over
November sees robust job gains, unemployment rates tumble, led by San Francisco and South Bay
Bay Area jobless rates improved in November to their best levels in at least 18 years, while the statewide jobless rate hit an all-time low as robust job growth arrived just in time for the holidays.
The latest unemployment statistics from California’s Employment Development Department and Beacon Economics allayed any fears that the region might tumble into a protracted slowdown, following choppy job numbers earlier this year.
Santa Clara County and the
East Bay last month enjoyed their lowest jobless rates since December 1999, while the San Francisco-San Mateo region posted its lowest jobless rate ever, at just 2.2 percent, according to Beacon Economics.
Looking ahead, economists pointed to regional expansion by several of the Bay Area’s largest technology companies as a good omen for job growth over the longer term.
“The bottom line is the Bay Area has rebounded from the mid-year slump,” said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. “And these job gains are happening even
before all the expansions by the big tech companies. We may be looking at sustained job growth in the Bay Area because of these big tech expansions.”
The Bay Area economy powered to a gain of 16,000 jobs last month, state labor officials reported in seasonally adjusted figures for November.
“We are really seeing the Bay Area finish the year on a high note,” said Robert Kleinhenz, executive director of economic research with Beacon Economics and UC Riverside’s School of Business.
The San Francisco-San Mateo region led the Bay Area with a gain of 10,000 jobs, while Santa Clara County added 4,100 and the East Bay gained 2,600, according to the state EDD.
“This takes some of the worries away about the Bay Area job market,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist with San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank. “The labor market has really tightened up.”
The East Bay unemployment rate improved to 3.1 percent in November versus 3.4 percent in October; the Santa Clara County rate was better at 2.7 percent compared with 3 percent; and the San Francisco-San Mateo area unemployment rate was 2.2 percent compared with 2.5 percent.
California’s jobless rate improved to 4.6 percent in November — the state’s lowest unemployment rate on record, based on official statistics dating back to 1976, according to the EDD.
The national unemployment rate in November was 4.1 percent.
Statewide, employers added 31,700 non-farm payroll jobs during November, which means the Bay Area produced just over half of all the job gains in California last month.
The technology sector was particularly strong, gaining 4,100 jobs in the San Francisco-San Mateo area and 1,400 in Santa Clara County, according to a Beacon Economics analysis of the EDD figures. The East Bay tech sector was flat.
Health care hiring, potentially timed to the addition of new customers following open enrollment, produced a gain of 1,300 health care jobs in Santa Clara County, 800 in San Francisco-San Mateo and 700 in the East Bay.
Construction boomed in Santa Clara County with a gain of 1,100 jobs and was sturdy in San Francisco-San Mateo, with 700 more positions. Both of those areas have enjoyed a big upswing in development of new office buildings amid tech companies’ expansions, along with retail projects such as the Valley Fair mall expansion in San Jose.
The East Bay gained 800 warehouse and transportation jobs, an increase that experts said could be tied to brisk activity at the Port of Oakland.
Arts and entertainment gained 2,300 jobs in Santa Clara County and 800 positions in the San Francisco-San Mateo region. This category encompasses a wide array of industries, including gambling, spectator sports, museums, cultural centers and live entertainment.
Retail suffered through a downturn in hiring during November, though, reflecting store shutdowns and the defections of customers from brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping. Retailers shed 1,500 jobs in the Bay Area. The hardest-hit areas were the East Bay, which lost 1,100 retail jobs, and Santa Clara County, which lost 900 positions. The San Francisco-San Mateo area added 500 retail positions. Other urban centers in the Bay Area had only minor changes in retail job totals. All the industry statistics reflect Beacon’s estimates.
The struggles in retail underscore the importance of technology expansions from firms such as Google, Apple, Facebook and LinkedIn. These and other tech companies have fashioned plans for growth in the South Bay.
Plus, Facebook and Tesla have leased big offices in Fremont’s Ardenwood district to make job sites more accessible to workers in the East Bay and the Central Valley.