IMPORTANT NOTE: The employment data for the month of March 2024 is taken from the survey week including Mar. 12. Data for April is scheduled for release on May 17, 2024.

April 19, 2024 - SACRAMENTO – California’s employers added 28,300 nonfarm payroll jobs¹ in March 2024 and the unemployment rate held steady at 5.3 percent², according to data released today by the Employment Development Department (EDD) from two surveys. Despite the mostly weather-related job loss of 6,600 in February (revised down by 3,200), March continued a job growth trend over the last eight months that totals 205,200 jobs – a monthly average increase of 25,700 jobs.

California's Labor Market, by the Numbers...

• The State’s job market expansion is now 47 months long. Since April 2020, California has gained 3,062,700 jobs, or about 65,200 per month on average.
• Seven of California's 11 industry sectors gained jobs in March with Private Education & Health Services (+13,600) posting the largest month-over gain for the third month in a row. This was due in part to payroll additions in Social Assistance, which saw noticeable growth with in-home support service workers.
• Construction bounced back after a weather-related decrease last month with a gain of 4,600 jobs. The industry is up 33,900 jobs over the year.
• Manufacturing (-5,300) experienced the largest month-over job reduction with losses in sectors including Machinery Manufacturing and Food Manufacturing.
• California’s latest unemployment rate is in line with the 5% average rate over five years leading into the pandemic – during one of the longest economic expansions in state history.

_{1. The unemployment rate comes from a separate federal survey of 5,100 California households.}

_{2. The nonfarm payroll job numbers come from a federal survey of 80,000 California businesses.}

Data Trends about Jobs in the Economy

Total Nonfarm Payroll Jobs

Total Nonfarm Payroll Jobs (Comes from a monthly survey of approximately 80,000 California businesses that estimates jobs in the economy – seasonally adjusted)

• Month-over – Total nonfarm jobs in California’s 11 major industries amounted to 17,996,200 in March – a net gain of 28,300 from February. This followed a downward revised (-3,200) month-over loss of 6,600 jobs in February.
• Year-over – Total nonfarm jobs increased by 217,700 (a 1.2 percent increase) from March 2023 to March 2024 compared to the U.S. annual gain of 2,927,000 jobs (a 1.9 percent increase).

Total Farm Jobs – While the number of jobs in the agriculture industry decreased by 2,000 jobs from February to a total of 423,000 jobs in March, the agriculture industry did have 31,300 more farm jobs in March 2024 than it did in March a year ago.

Data Trends about Workers in the Economy

Employment and Unemployment in California (Based on a monthly federal survey of 5,100 California households which focuses on workers in the economy)

• Employed – The number of Californians employed in March was 18,313,500, a small decrease of 8,100 persons from February’s total of 18,321,600 and down 104,100 from the employment total in March 2023.
• Unemployed – The number of unemployed Californians was 1,032,400 in March, an increase of 4,000 over the month and up 170,500 in comparison to March 2023.

Unemployment Insurance Claims (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

The following data is from a sample week that includes the 19^th of each month:
A total of 41,000 initial claims for unemployment were processed in the March 2024 sample week, which was a month-over decrease of 260 claims from February and a year-over decrease of 5,792 claims from March 2023. In related data that figures into the state’s unemployment rate, there were 446,130 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits during the March 2024 sample week. That compares to 425,760 people in February and 414,119 people in March 2023.  

MONTHLY LABOR FORCE DATA FOR COUNTIES
March 2024 (Preliminary); 2023 Benchmark
NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED

COUNTY	LABOR FORCE	EMPLOYMENT	UNEMPLOYMENT	RATE
STATE TOTAL	19,409,300	18,372,600	1,036,700	5.3%
ALAMEDA	828,200	789,800	38,400	4.6%
ALPINE	640	600	40	6.0%
AMADOR	14,730	13,900	830	5.6%
BUTTE	93,700	87,700	6,000	6.4%
CALAVERAS	22,310	21,160	1,150	5.2%
COLUSA	11,030	8,920	2,120	19.2%
CONTRA COSTA	553,200	527,200	26,000	4.7%
DEL NORTE	9,320	8,740	590	6.3%
EL DORADO	95,700	91,200	4,500	4.7%
FRESNO	467,000	424,300	42,600	9.1%
GLENN	12,770	11,800	970	7.6%
HUMBOLDT	61,300	58,000	3,300	5.4%
IMPERIAL	72,900	61,200	11,800	16.1%
INYO	8,540	8,180	370	4.3%
KERN	391,700	352,000	39,700	10.1%
KINGS	59,700	53,700	6,000	10.0%
LAKE	29,170	27,240	1,930	6.6%
LASSEN	8,610	8,000	610	7.1%
LOS ANGELES	5,029,800	4,767,300	262,500	5.2%
MADERA	66,300	60,400	5,900	8.9%
MARIN	133,300	128,400	4,900	3.7%
MARIPOSA	7,420	6,940	470	6.4%
MENDOCINO	38,150	35,970	2,180	5.7%
MERCED	121,700	107,700	14,100	11.5%
MODOC	3,220	2,940	290	8.9%
MONO	9,370	8,990	380	4.0%
MONTEREY	215,300	192,800	22,500	10.5%
NAPA	72,600	69,600	3,000	4.2%
NEVADA	49,730	47,470	2,260	4.5%
ORANGE	1,599,900	1,537,100	62,800	3.9%
PLACER	198,100	189,600	8,500	4.3%
PLUMAS	7,300	6,450	850	11.6%
RIVERSIDE	1,164,300	1,104,200	60,100	5.2%
SACRAMENTO	742,500	706,000	36,500	4.9%
SAN BENITO	32,600	30,200	2,500	7.5%
SAN BERNARDINO	1,018,800	967,100	51,700	5.1%
SAN DIEGO	1,603,100	1,532,300	70,800	4.4%
SAN FRANCISCO	559,400	538,800	20,600	3.7%
SAN JOAQUIN	350,100	325,100	25,000	7.1%
SAN LUIS OBISPO	137,200	131,800	5,400	4.0%
SAN MATEO	442,900	427,600	15,300	3.5%
SANTA BARBARA	218,900	207,900	11,100	5.1%
SANTA CLARA	1,037,600	995,400	42,200	4.1%
SANTA CRUZ	133,800	123,800	10,000	7.4%
SHASTA	75,100	70,400	4,700	6.3%
SIERRA	1,330	1,230	100	7.5%
SISKIYOU	16,660	15,280	1,380	8.3%
SOLANO	205,300	194,400	10,900	5.3%
SONOMA	251,200	240,800	10,400	4.2%
STANISLAUS	250,300	231,700	18,600	7.4%
SUTTER	47,800	43,100	4,700	9.8%
TEHAMA	26,450	24,630	1,820	6.9%
TRINITY	4,620	4,290	330	7.1%
TULARE	213,700	188,100	25,500	12.0%
TUOLUMNE	20,360	19,200	1,170	5.7%
VENTURA	417,900	398,600	19,300	4.6%
YOLO	111,800	105,300	6,500	5.8%
YUBA	32,900	30,200	2,700	8.1%

Source: EDD