California Adds 22,900 Nonfarm Payroll Jobs in June. Last Friday, June 17, EDD released California's June 2015 jobs report. The data reflect continued growth in employment, as nonfarm payroll jobs increased 22,900 over revised estimates for May 2015, as shown in the table below. June 2015 represents the 46th straight month in which the state added at least 15,000 jobs. In addition, California’s unemployment rate ticked down one tenth of one percentage point, to 6.3%.
Growth Slowed, But Outlook Still Positive. While employment growth appears to have slowed somewhat—the 3-month growth rate (2.2% annualized) is more modest than the year-over-year rate (3.0%)—we continue to observe capacity to add jobs in the medium term. This is because (1) unemployment is still well above the pre-recession low of around 5% and (2) we think there is room for labor force participation to improve.
Broad-Based Job Growth. Job growth in California over the past 12 months (3%) continues to outpace the nation as a whole (2.1%). Of the 18 job sectors we track, 14 exhibit comparably higher growth rates. The professional and technical services sector—which includes most of California’s booming tech industry—continues to lead the way, with 77,000 (or roughly one-sixth) of the total jobs added in California over the past 12 months. While most of the labor market shows characteristics of early stages of a recovery—including high unemployment and low labor force participation—the professional and technical services sector is in mature expansion mode, with 173,500 (or 16.0%) more jobs than at the pre-recession peak in April 2008.