January 23, 2026
Beacon Employment Report | California
Presented by Beacon Economics
Copyright © Beacon Economics LLC
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
- Health Care led growth over the last year, with payrolls expanding by 150,300 or 5.1%. Other sectors posting strong annual gains were Government (20,200 or 0.8%), Leisure and Hospitality (13,600 or 0.7%), Education (2,400 or 0.6%), and Other Services (2,200 or 0.4%).
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services led declines over the last year, with payrolls falling by 42,600, a -3.0% decrease. Other sectors with notable declines include Manufacturing (-32,600 or -2.6%), Administrative Support (-23,800 or -2.2%), Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities (-22,200 or -2.6%), Construction (-19,800 or -2.2%), Retail Trade (-15,000 or -0.9%), Information (-13,300 or -2.5%), Finance and Insurance (-9,600 or -1.9%), Real Estate (-8,900 or -2.9%), Wholesale Trade (-8,800 or -1.3%), and Management (-3,500 or -1.2%).
- At the industry level, growth was concentrated in just a handful of sectors in December. Health Care led the gains with payrolls expanding by 6,700, an increase of 0.2% on a month-over-month basis. Health Care has been one of the primary sources of new jobs in the state since the start of the pandemic, with payrolls up 24.1% since February 2020.
- Other sectors posting strong gains during the month were Government (4,500 or 0.2%), Leisure and Hospitality (3,700 or 0.2%), Wholesale Trade (1,500 or 0.2%), and Management (1,000 or 0.4%).
- Construction had the largest payroll declines in December, with payrolls falling by -5,000, a drop of -0.6% on a month-over-month basis. However, these declines were largely seasonal, driven mainly by the rain and stormy weather that month. Other sectors posting significant declines in December were Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (-3,500 or -0.3%), Other Services (-2,700 or -0.5%), Retail Trade (-1,800 or -0.1%), Information (-1,700 or -0.3%), Education (-1,700 or -0.4%), Administrative Support (-1,200 or -0.1%), Finance and Insurance (-700 or -0.1%), Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities (-600 or -0.1%), and Real Estate (-400 or -0.1%).
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