The Bay Area lost jobs in September in a sign that its job market has begun to falter — and even worse, the nine-county region has now lost employment for three straight months, an unsettling new report shows.
The once-robust Bay Area shed 5,200 jobs during September, driven by employment losses in the South Bay, East Bay and San Francisco-San Mateo County, state labor officials reported Friday.
The worst September losses came in the San Francisco-San Mateo metro area, whose employers chopped a net total of 4,100 jobs, the state Employment Development Department reported.
The South Bay lost 1,800 jobs while the East Bay shed 1,600 jobs, the state EDD reported. All the numbers were adjusted for seasonal volatility.
California’s employment engine has ground to a near halt. The state added a puny 8,700 jobs in September, marking the fourth straight month that California gained fewer than 10,000 jobs.
The statewide unemployment rate worsened and rose to 4.7% in September, up from 4.6% in August. In September 2022, the California jobless rate was only 4%.
Following revisions of prior preliminary job reports, the Bay Area wound up losing jobs in July, August and September, the latest estimates show.
Ominously, the current trend suggests that job losses have become steadily worse in recent months.
The Bay Area lost 700 jobs in July and 3,700 positions in August, capped off by the loss of 5,200 jobs in September, the updated government figures show.