Beacon Employment Report California – Industry Overview

At the industry level, the largest jobs gains continue to occur in the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic. While California has made up significant ground in recent months, employment levels in many of these sectors remain far below their pre-pandemic levels.

The Leisure and Hospitality sector led gains in March, with payrolls expanding by 42,400. Still, this sector has a long way to go to recover all the jobs lost due to the economic downturn, with payrolls having fallen by 650,100 (-31.6%) since its previous peak in February 2020.

Other sectors posting strong gains during the month were Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities (15,900), Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (14,100), Retail Trade (11,600), Administrative Support (7,700), Other Services (7,300), and Construction (6,000).

California’s growth was spread across almost all industries in March, with only Finance and Insurance (-300) and Real Estate (-300) posting payrolls declines.