02/08/2025

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QUICK FACTS: California Employment Report for December 2024

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The Center for Jobs and the Economy has released our initial analysis of the December Employment Report from the California Employment Development Department. For additional information and data about the California economy visit www.centerforjobs.org/ca. Comparisons across states will be addressed in our full jobs report following release of the data by US Bureau of Labor Statistics on the 28th.

Mixed Results Continue in the December Data

The December preliminary data again showed mixed results from the two core surveys. Nonfarm jobs (seasonally adjusted) rose 15,000 in December, while the November gains were lowered by 1,500 to 9,600.

Employment (seasonally adjusted), in contrast, dipped by 3,100 from November, and by 13,800 for the year. Unemployment rose by 6,000 over the month, marking the 12th month in a row when the number of unemployed in the state was above 1 million.

The US labor force data has been updated with the release of the first slate of the annual revisions through 2020. Additional clarifications on the jobs and employment situations will be released with the annual data revision process for the states, beginning with the January data release scheduled for mid-March.

California Labor Force

Seasonally AdjustedCaliforniaUS
Dec 2024Change from Nov 2024Dec 2024Change from Nov 2024
Unemployment Rate5.5%0.14.1%-0.1
Labor Force19,399,4000.0%168,547,0000.2%
Participation Rate62.5%0.0
Employment18,338,1000.0%161,661,0000.3%
Unemployment1,061,3000.6%6,886,000-3.3%

5.5%
CA Unemployment
Rate

California’s reported unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) rose 0.1 point to 5.5%. The US rate dipped 0.1 point to 4.1%.

-3.1k
CA Employment

Employment dipped 3,100 (seasonally adjusted), with the total employment loss since the previous peak in May 2023 at 104,000.

US employment rose by 520,000.

California unemployment continued rising by 6,000, while US unemployment dropped by 235,000. California unemployment has been above 1 million every month in 2024, the highest levels since the pandemic period in 2021

Nonfarm Jobs

15.0k
Nonfarm Jobs
Change

Nonfarm wage and salary jobs rose 15,000 in the preliminary results for December, while the November gains were lowered to 9,600.

For the US as a whole, nonfarm jobs rose 256,000.

Unemployment Rates by Region

Looking at employment change over the year, the Central Valley continued to show the strongest gains, with Los Angeles remaining in the plus column. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the strongest shortfalls remain in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Employment by Region

Source:  EDD, not seasonally adjusted
Change from Dec 2023Change from Dec 2020
Central Valley24,00054,700
Inland Empire17,60049,100
Los Angeles15,700-334,500
Upstate California6,520-5,400
Sacramento5,78012,240
Orange County3,000-59,400
Central Coast2,600-20,300
San Diego/Imperial1,800-23,700
Central Sierra1,130-910
Bay Area-10,000-222,300

Unemployment rates (not seasonally adjusted) continue to be higher in most regions compared to pre-pandemic February 2020 levels.

Unemployment Rate by Region

Source:  EDD, not seasonally adjusted
Dec-24Feb-20
California5.24.3
Orange County3.82.8
Bay Area4.02.7
Sacramento4.63.7
Central Sierra4.84.5
Inland Empire4.93.9
San Diego/Imperial4.93.8
Los Angeles5.64.3
Upstate California6.36.3
Central Coast6.67.0
Central Valley7.98.4

Counties with Double-Digit Unemployment

3
Counties with
Unemployment Above
10%

The number of counties with an unemployment rate (not seasonally adjusted) at 10% stayed at 3. The unadjusted rates ranged from 3.3% in San Mateo to 17.8% in Imperial.

Unemployment Rate by Legislative District

The estimated unemployment rates (not seasonally adjusted) are shown below for the highest and lowest districts. The full data and methodology are available on the Center’s website.

LowestCD11 Pelosi (D)3.4SD13 Becker (D)3.2AD23 Berman (D)3.0
CD40 Kim (R)3.4SD40 Jones (R)3.4AD76 Maienschein (D)3.1
CD50 Peters (D)3.5SD11 Wiener (D)3.5AD19 Ting (D)3.2
CD15 Mullin (D)3.5SD38 Blakespear (D)3.5AD26 Low (D)3.3
CD16 Eshoo (D)3.5SD37 Min (D)3.6AD72 Dixon (R)3.3
CD47 Porter (D)3.7SD10 Wahab (D)4.0AD21 Papan (D)3.4
CD17 Khanna (D)3.7SD34 Umberg (D)4.0AD16 Bauer-Kahan (D)3.5
CD49 Levin (D)3.8SD15 Cortese (D)4.1AD68 Valencia (D)3.6
CD10 DeSaulnier (D)3.9SD36 Nguyen (R)4.1AD12 Connolly (D)3.7
CD02 Huffman (D)4.0SD02 McGuire (D)4.2AD77 Boerner Horvath (D)3.7
HighestCD46 Correa (D)6.3SD23 Ochoa Bogh (R)5.9AD39 Carrillo (D)6.8
CD14 Swalwell (D)6.4SD01 Dahle (R)6.1AD32 Fong (R)7.0
CD48 Issa (R)6.6SD26 Durazo (D)6.1AD22 Alanis (R)7.1
CD51 Jacobs (D)6.7SD12 Grove (R)6.4AD29 Rivas (D)7.6
CD45 Steel (R)6.7SD28 Smallwood-Cuevas (D)6.5AD57 Jones-Sawyer (D)8.0
CD35 Torres (D)6.8SD35 Bradford (D)6.7AD35 Bains (D)9.0
CD24 Carbajal (D)8.7SD17 Laird (D)6.8AD27 Soria (D)9.4
CD38 Sánchez (D)9.0SD18 Padilla (D)8.2AD31 Arambula (D)9.6
CD28 Chu (D)9.3SD14 Caballero (D)9.6AD33 Mathis (R)10.6
CD06 Bera (D)10.1SD16 Hurtado (D)10.0AD36 Garcia (D)10.7