California continued to see slow job growth in April, with the unemployment rate remaining at 5.3%, the highest in the nation, the government announced Friday.
California statistics show employers added a net 5,200 jobs statewide in April, up from 18,200 in March. Employment Development Department.
Nationally, employers added 175,000 jobs in April and 315,000 jobs in March. The US unemployment rate in April was 3.9%.
Key sectors of California’s economy, including manufacturing, information services, and professional and business services, saw job losses decline last month, even as the number of unemployed people in the state increased by 164,000 over the past year. , employment opportunities are not as plentiful as before. 12 months.
In California, there were 140 unemployed people for every 100 job openings last month. federal statistics It was released on Friday. Less than two years ago, he had about two job openings for every unemployed person.
Carol Jackson, an unemployed South Los Angeles resident, said she has been hitting the pavement for months, hoping to put her recently earned associate degree in web and database management to use. But even though she sent her resume to at least 100 employers, she never received an interview.
“California is pretty brutal right now,” said Jackson, 57.
Employment in California has lagged behind national trends, with one notable exception. The state’s health and social assistance sector added 10,100 jobs last month, bringing the number to about 155,000 over the past 12 months. This represents 75% of all new jobs added since April 2023.
Hospitals and clinics are proliferating, but the fastest growing sectors are outpatient centers, home health care companies, nursing homes, and social assistance, including especially vocational rehabilitation and child day care services.
“Healthcare is the big gorilla in this room,” said Mark Schniepp, director of California Economic Forecasting in Santa Barbara, adding that growth is likely to continue strong due to new and expanded medical facilities across the state.
The leisure and hospitality industry added 3,100 jobs last month. The increase also includes jobs in hotels and restaurants, even as employers are feeling additional stress due to the minimum wage increase to $20 an hour for fast food workers that took effect on April 1. ing.
Amid concerns about layoffs in the food industry, By introducing technology to replace workers, California restaurants are becoming more popular in tourism. The leisure sector as a whole is nearing a full recovery from the heavy losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public sector payrolls also performed well last month, increasing by 2,600 people. So far, California’s large budget deficit appears to have had little impact on state and local employment.
“But it’s clearly another factor,” said Sung Won Sung, an economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Song and other economists are concerned about national, cyclical and state-specific threats to California jobs and the broader economic outlook.
Key pillars of the state’s economy continue to struggle.
Despite the movie industry resolving its labor strike last fall, movie producers and other information industry employers see little sign of emerging from the employment slump. Los Angeles’ film and recording studio industry had 13,400 fewer employees (12%) in April compared to the same month last year. And many industry workers say the situation doesn’t seem to be improving.
Much of the Central Valley’s agricultural economy remains depressed, due in part to rising costs, tight fiscal conditions, and ongoing climate change.
Despite heavy investments in artificial intelligence, tech companies in the Bay Area and elsewhere continue to cut jobs.Science and technology companies cut jobs last month, cutting jobs in computer systems design jobs and related services are gradually decreasing.
Nationally, economists expect job growth to slow in coming months due to continued high interest rates and an expected consumer exodus. The outlook for California is particularly bleak.
“We’re seeing some signs of further economic slowdown on the ground,” said Michael Vernick, an employment attorney at Duane Morris in San Francisco and former director of the state EDD. “Small businesses continue to struggle across the state due to rising prices and tight consumer spending,” he said.
He and other experts are similarly restrained about the factors plaguing the state, including high costs, overregulation and unaffordable housing prices, among other things.
“We have real challenges here in California that other states don’t face,” said Renee Ward, founder of Seniors4Hire.org, a Huntington Beach-based organization that helps employ older workers. he says.
He said the number of job seekers signing up for the company’s services has increased by 26% so far in 2024 compared to a year ago.
