Beacon Employment Report California

California’s labor market continued to expand in April, with total nonfarm employment in the state growing by 67,000 positions over the month. March’s gains were also revised up to 11,900 in the latest numbers, a 3,200 increase from the preliminary estimate of 8,700.

“California accounted for roughly one-quarter of the jobs added in the nation during April,”  said Taner Osman, Research Manager at Beacon Economics. “Despite all the talk of tech-sector lay-offs, the state’s economy has had a strong start to the year, adding jobs at a quicker rate than the nation as a whole.”

As of April 2023, California has recovered all of the jobs that were lost in March and April 2020, and there are now 365,400 more people employed in the state compared to February 2020, the month before pandemic-related employment losses occurred. Total nonfarm employment in the state has grown 2.1% since the pre-pandemic peak compared to a 2.2% increase nationally. Annually, California increased payrolls by 2.4% from April 2022 to April 2023, trailing the 2.6% increase nationally over the same period.

California’s unemployment rate increased to 4.4% in the latest numbers, which is elevated relative to the 3.4% rate in the United States overall. California is continuing to struggle with its labor supply, which grew by 32,700 in April, an increase of 0.2% on a month-over-month basis. Since February 2020, the state’s labor force has fallen by 196,400 workers, a 1.0% decline.

The Beacon Employment Report | California is a unique analysis of California’s employment numbers and trends. Each month, we link our own econometric predictions to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the California Employment Development Department to identify important changes in employment across industries and regions. The Beacon Employment Report is also one of the few analyses that uses seasonally adjusted numbers, which are critical to revealing accurate trends and insights within data. The analysis is a sample of the kind of research available from Beacon Economics.