Monday, May 31, 2010

Recent jobs report indicates that northern California losing jobs ...but rate of decline is slowing.

A recent report by the Center for Strategic Economic Research dated May 2010 paints an accurate picture of the continuing job losses in the Sacramento, Bay Area, Solano, and Stockton Regions and contrasts those trends with those of California and the Nation. The report which is produced in conjunction with the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization and with California State University Sacramento demonstrates that these regions in northern California have continued to shed jobs, but that the rate of decline is slowing in a few areas.

The authors do a great job “slicing and dicing” the numbers. But it is not really a pretty picture!

In the last 12 months; April of 2009 to April 2010 there are 327,000 fewer jobs in California, 82,300 fewer in the SF Bay Area, 27,300 fewer jobs in Sacramento, 2,900 fewer in Stockton, and 3,700 in Solano. The job losses are in both the private sector and public sector.

The report highlights those areas of the economy that are actually adding jobs in each region. But the majority of sectors are still not adding jobs in any region. The report tries to have a positive light and repeatedly points out that the rate of job loss has slowed. The report states; “The mixed conditions in Sacramento’s largest sectors are slowing improvements in the overall economy as nearly all other sectors are better off than they were one year ago. The state and nation turned the corner about eight months ago and are posting much slower annual rates of loss.”

These job numbers are equal to employment numbers in 2001 and 2002. The demand for office and industrial space is likely to remain soft until job growth really picks up.




President Harry Truman said this about jobs and the recession. “It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own. ~Harry S. Truman