The job markets in the Bay Area and California powered to robust job gains in March, a hiring upswing that — for now — ward off the dismal job losses that the nine-county region and the state suffered in February.
The Bay Area gained 4,200 jobs in March, an increase fueled by hiring surges in the South Bay and the East Bay, according to a new government report.
The Port of Oakland in a drone view, April 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
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The March job gains in the Bay Area represented a welcome counterpoint to the loss of 3,500 jobs in the nine-county region in February.
The South Bay added 2,800 jobs in March while the East Bay gained 900 positions, government labor officials reported.
The San Francisco-San Mateo region, however, lost 500 jobs in March, the government report stated. This setback could reinforce the gloomy perception of an economic “doom loop” scenario in San Francisco. The San Francisco-San Mateo metro area has lost jobs for three months in a row.
California gained 28,600 jobs in March, which was a big improvement from the loss of 6,600 jobs in February.
The statewide unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.3%. That was well above the record-low jobless rate of 3.8% in August 2022. Since that month, the California jobless rate has steadily worsened.