California's Employment Development Department (EDD) has released preliminary jobs data for the state for December 2015. Our typical monthly chart below summarizes the key results of the payroll (employer) survey, which shows that over the past year, the rate of job growth for construction and professional/business services has been higher than that of other sectors in California. Growth in professional services was led by 8% growth in the computer services industry. Overall, for the 18 sectors we track in the monthly jobs report, 12 (shown in green below) have grown at a faster rate in California than in the nation as a whole, while 4 (shown in black) have grown at a slower rate here. Two sectors--manufacturing and mining & logging (oil and gas)--have seen job declines over the past year in California (shown in red).
The official unemployment rate for the state creeped up slightly to 5.8% in December. That rate is determined from a smaller survey of households in the state.
For other snippets of information on the December jobs report, see the following tweets from @LAOEconTax:
- County unemployment rates, ranging from 3.1% in San Mateo County to 19.6% in Imperial County.
- More details on the household survey, labor force, and unemployment for the state and Los Angeles County.
- EDD data showing that the number of Californians not in the labor force, but who still want jobs, continues to fall.
- EDD data showing that full-time employment continues to rise in the state, while part-time work is falling.
- Data showing that the broadest available measure of underemployment (known as "U-6") is now far below its 2010 peak in California.
- Growth rates for nonfarm employment over the past year by California metro area.
- California's job growth rate over the past year ranks 5th among the 50 U.S. states.
- California's 5.8% official unemployment rate now is tied with Arizona, ranking 41st among the 50 states.
- Among 51 large metropolitan areas in the U.S., 5 of the top 17 in 2015 job growth were in California (as of November). The San Jose MSA ranked #1.
- Various California metropolitan areas still had among the highest unemployment rates in the U.S., as of November. Bay Area MSAs, however, had among the lowest unemployment rates, compared to other large metro regions.
Follow @LAOEconTax on Twitter for regular California economy and tax updates.