Some 242,000 Los Angeles County residents entered the labor force looking for work in February. Previously, the labor force had been shrinking as residents gave up looking or chose to stay home to care for children or other family members. The data also show that 267,000 more people reported they were working in February than in January.
For the 12 months between January 2020 and January 2021, the county shed 557,000 jobs for a drop of 12%, according to the EDD figures. The drop is greater than was reported for the county for most of last year. The EDD significantly revised the payroll jobs numbers downward for December and January.