Quick Facts: California Employment Report for June 2023

The June data continued the pattern over the prior year of one month reporting job gains in the 60s followed by two months of pronounced slowing. Nonfarm jobs (seasonally adjusted) were up 11,600 in June, while May’s stronger gains were revised down by 9,900. Employment barely registered a gain at only 7,900. Nonfarm jobs continued rising beyond the pre-pandemic high, but employment still has yet to reach this recovery level. Employment was still 185,700 (1.0%) off the pre-pandemic peak in February 2020. Even with the uptick that has now run for 4 months, California employment has remained essentially unchanged since last June, putting pressure on the state’s ability to expand jobs going forward.

Using the unadjusted series to provide a more detailed look at jobs by industry wage level, recovery across the three wage levels continued to converge around the total jobs growth point.

Compared to the pre-pandemic peak in February 2020, California’s continued weak employment recovery saw the state’s ranking still at 42nd highest among the states and DC.

California’s 11,600 jobs gain was 4th highest compared to the other states and DC. Texas was highest at 31,100, followed by New York at 28,100 and Washington at 11,900. Compared to the pre-pandemic peak in February 2020, California with real job gains of 417,300 again was third, behind Texas (973,300) and Florida (658,700). On a comparative basis, California’s recovery rate again ranked 21st highest among the states. Thirteen states and DC remained below their pre-pandemic peaks.

The change in nonfarm jobs (seasonally adjusted) from May and net growth since pre-pandemic February 2020 are shown below. The interior regions show the largest net job gains since the pre-pandemic peak, while the Bay Area continues to grow and Los Angeles Region is just above that recovery level. Even with ongoing concerns over the Tech Industry, the Bay Area led jobs growing In June.

Because the data in the table is seasonally adjusted, the numbers should be considered as the total for the counties in each region rather than the regional number. This job series also is not available for all areas in California.

Unemployment rates (not seasonally adjusted) compared to pre-pandemic February 2020 are shown below. 

Los Angeles Region continues to lag the rest of the state in recovery to the pre-pandemic peak employment levels (not seasonally adjusted), but labor shortfalls extended into additional regions in June.