Los Angeles County lost 35,200 jobs in early March and its unemployment rate spiked to 6.4%, a prelude to massive job cuts resulting from the battle against coronavirus.
Data released Friday, April 17 is a first look at the local impact of an ongoing layoff spree following “stay at home” orders. Industries such as restaurants, business services and real estate were especially hard hit.
Surging job losses come as no surprise. Weekly reports of applicants seeking jobless benefits suggest nearly 3 million Californians are without work. The monthly employment reports, however, are derived from surveys of businesses and households in the first two weeks of each month. The huge layoffs linked to the pandemic did not heat up until later in March.
So, view these March job estimates — which will surely be revised upwards — as an early snapshot of the damage. April and May employment reports will be far worse.
A loss of 35,200 jobs — an 0.89% dip — is still bad news. This is the first March decline in jobs this century for the county, which had been adding an average 77,250 jobs in the month since 2012.
In early March, 320,500 Los Angeles County County residents were counted as officially unemployed — that’s up 82,300 in a month or a 34.6% increase. The jobless rate rose to 6.4% vs. 4.6% a month earlier and 4.5% in March 2019. These joblessness levels are five-year highs.
Here’s how employment fared in some key industries impacted by coronavirus challenges:
Restaurants: 386,800 jobs — down 11,700 in a month, a 2.9% dive. The loss of being able to serve in dining rooms hammered eateries.
Business services: 644,900 jobs — down 2,800 in a month, a 0.4% drop. Many businesses quickly dropped their support partners, temp firms and planning consultants as the economy quickly soured.
Real estate, construction, finance: 375,600 jobs — down 2,000 in a month, a 0.5% drop. These industries with largely “essential” workers also saw limits placed on their operations.
Hotels: 47,800 jobs — down 1,200 in a month, a 2.4% drop. Travel and tourism have largely dried up.
L.A. is by no means alone.
In Southern California, Orange County lost 13,200 jobs while the Inland Empire saw 5,500 positions trimmed.
California officially lost 99,500 jobs in early March, the worst drop in the nation. This was the state’s largest one-month employment decline since the Great Recession, dropping its total job count to 17.5 million.
Federal job stats show jobs fell in 31 states in March. Texas (down 50,900 jobs) and New York (41,700) had the next-biggest jobs declines.
California’s jobless rate was 5.3% for the month — up from 3.9% in February. That’s the highest since December 2016. Unemployment rose in 29 states. March’s U.S. rate was 4.4% vs. 3.5% the month before.
