California continues to lead the nation’s economic recovery with job growth

SACRAMENTO — Governor Gavin Newsom released the following statement regarding the job report showing that California created 44 percent of the nation’s new jobs in August, having added 104,300 new jobs last month, again creating more new jobs than any other state:

“California continues to lead the nation’s economic recovery, creating 44 percent of the nation’s new jobs in August and ranking third in the nation in rate of job growth this year. These 104,300 new jobs, the fifth time this year of six-figure job growth, represent new paychecks for Californians and new employees on payroll for businesses. We still have more work to do in regaining those jobs lost to the pandemic, but this is promising progress for California’s economic recovery.”

This year, California’s rate of job growth ranks third compared to other states and has outpaced national trends. And California has created a total of 774,200 jobs this year, twice as many as any other state. California’s 1.4 percentage point unemployment decrease from January 2021 through July 2021 is tied with Rhode Island and Georgia as the sixth largest decrease among states over this period.

Of the 2,714,800 jobs lost in March and April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, California has now regained 62.1 percent, or 1,686,000 jobs. Nine of California’s 11 industry sectors gained jobs in August. Government (+46,900) has the state’s largest month-over gain driven by hiring in Local Government Education as a new school year begins and public schools reopen. Professional and Business Services (+14,000) performed well as its Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services subsector has now regained all jobs it had lost since the beginning of the pandemic.