Area job market still recovering

Report: Region lost 27,000 positions to start 2023; recent hirings short of pre-COVID level

The Bay Area job market was so feeble in 2023 that the region suffered brutal job losses for most of the year before employers mounted a massive hiring rebound in recent months, a new analysis shows.

Despite the rally in job creation, the slump that gripped the nine-county Bay Area for most of 2023 means it still has failed to regain the heights it enjoyed before the coronavirus pandemic and resulting wide-ranging business shutdowns.

Those are some of the takeaways from an analysis by this news organization of the state Employment Development Department's just-released revised estimates for the region's employment picture.

“The Bay Area economy went through a mini-recession last year based on the revised job numbers,” said Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist with BMO Capital Markets.

Instead of adding 62,100 jobs in 2023, the nine-county region eked out a paltry gain of 4,600 jobs last year, or 57,500 fewer than originally calculated.

“All signs were pointing toward a downward revision, but the magnitude is more than I expected,” said Jeffrey Michael, executive director of the Stocktonbased Center for Business and Policy Research at the University of the Pacific.

For six of the first eight months of 2023, the Bay Area lost jobs, the revised figures from the state EDD show. During that rough stretch from January through August, the region lost 27,600 jobs.

“This was a downturn,” said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a San Jose-based think tank. “We saw some industries that were weaker, such as tech, and others