California’s ‘weak’ job market propped up by public money as private sector sheds jobs

By Levi Sumagaysay (CALMATTERS) – Gains in public-sector and other jobs largely supported by public money have cloaked a dismal California labor market, which has seen a big decline of private-industry jobs since their post-pandemic peak, a new analysis shows. The state Legislative Analyst’s Office looked at employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics through April, and concluded that private-sector industries in California have lost a total of 340,000 jobs since reaching their peak a couple of years ago. The tech and finance industries led those losses. Jobs in the information sector — whose major employers include household names such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Disney — have declined 16% since their peak. There were more than 531,000 such jobs in July 2022, but 98,000 of those have gone away. Employment in the financial sector peaked at 500,000 jobs in December 2021, but it has lost 43,000 jobs, or 8%, since then. Three other industries each saw a 3% drop in jobs since their peaks: business services, manufacturing, and transportation and warehousing. California has a 5.2% unemployment rate, the highest in the nation for the past four months. Meanwhile, the health care and social-service industries have gained 240,000...