Bay Watch: A Weekly Look into the Bay Area Economy
July 26th, 2024
Bay Area Job Growth Slows but Exhibits Continual Positive Trends
The Bay Area economy grew in June, but results weren’t quite as positive as in May. Several sectors lost jobs but overall, the region continues to climb back from pandemic-related losses. Both the United States and California continue to see job growth above pre-pandemic levels, but the Bay Area lags. While jobs increased on net by 2,200 in the Bay Area in June, overall employment is still down 1.3% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
As mentioned, job growth in June regionally was positive but growth slowed from the growth surge in May. The region netted 2,200 jobs across the board. The growth is a positive sign after a rocky start to the year that saw a net loss of jobs between January and April.
The economic recovery of the Bay Area continues to be dominated by a strong rise in education, government, and leisure job gains, with education seeing strong gains since pandemic related losses began over four years ago. In fact, the education and health sector (which includes which includes most teachers, nurses, and other medical professionals) still stands at 60,500 jobs above pre-pandemic levels, with manufacturing respectively both also posting gains over their pre-pandemic levels. Manufacturing is still down 10,300 jobs in the last 12 months, however. The information and retail and trade sectors continue to sit far below pre-pandemic levels, and both saw slight losses between May and June although retail trade remains at net positive growth when aggregated over the last 12 months.
What About Layoffs?
The Bay Area has seen some of the most layoffs globally since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2023 and early 2024 were particularly bad years for layoffs. Layoffs have cooled off moving forward into 2024, and both June and July have seen smaller companies lay off workers but not any major layoffs like the ones at Meta and PayPal in previous years. PayPal did layoff 85 jobs on June 18, but that represents less than a percent of their workforce.