Los Angeles County is on the verge of regaining all the 785,000 payroll jobs lost in the spring 2020 pandemic lockdown, according to state figures released this month.
The figures from the state Employment Development Department also showed a slight uptick in the county’s unemployment rate to 4.9% in October from a revised 4.7% in September, as fewer residents reported they were working. Nonetheless, the rate is way down from 7.3% for October of last year.
As for the jobs milestone, the county gained nearly 59,000 payroll jobs in October to reach 4,610,600, just 9,900 fewer jobs than the pre-pandemic peak of 4,620,500 recorded in Feb. 2020. That’s a recovery rate of 98.8%; with the seasonal holiday hiring period approaching, 100% recovery could come as early as this month.
The county has already surpassed the 4,604,000 payroll jobs total recorded three years ago in Oct. 2019.
The EDD also releases an adjusted figure for payroll jobs that takes into account normal seasonal variations such as holiday retail hiring; that figure showed a gain of 21,000 jobs, which is one of the largest monthly increases this year.
Payroll job gains were spread across every major sector of the county’s economy in October, led by increases of more than 11,000 jobs in both health care/social assistance and professional/business services. Other sectors gaining jobs included state and local government (up 7,600 jobs), motion picture/sound recording (up 6,200 jobs) and retail trade (up 5,700 jobs). Even manufacturing eked out a gain of nearly 1,000 jobs.
Over the past 12 months, the county gained 197,000 payroll jobs, a 4.5% increase. Health care/social assistance was the biggest gainer, with an increase of 42,000 jobs. Professional/business services came in next, with an increase of nearly 33,000 jobs. Accommodation/food services, which has until now leading the recovery, came in third, rising roughly 28,000 jobs.
On the unemployment-rate front, the 4.9% figure for October was higher than the statewide average of 4% and the national average of 3.7%. But that gap has been steadily closing: a year ago the county’s unemployment rate was more than double the national rate.
The EDD also releases a city breakout of unemployment rates. The county’s two largest cities, Los Angeles and Long Beach, posted the same rate of 4.6%. Among cities with labor forces exceeding 10,000 people, Lancaster had the highest unemployment rate at 6.6%, while Lomita had the lowest at 2%.
