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| Graph courtesy of EDD
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Los Angeles County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate sunk to 4.5% in September, down from a revised 5.2% in August, according to the latest figures released by the state Employment Development Department.
The 4.5% rate was well below the 9.8% rate in September 2021.
In Orange County, the September unemployment rate was 2.7%, down slightly from 3% in August.
Statewide, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.9% in September, down from 4.1% in August and below the 7.5% rate from September 2021. The 3.9% is tied with July as the lowest ever on record in a data series that dates back to 1976.
According to the EDD, the state has now regained 99.1% of the 2.75 million nonfarm jobs lost during March and April of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The education and health services sector led the way by adding about 15,000 positions.
While California added jobs at a healthy pace in 2021 and 2022, as of September, the state’s economy had not yet recovered all the jobs that were lost during the onset of the pandemic, according an analysis released by Beacon Economics and the UCR School of Business Center for Economic Forecasting and Development.
“September was a weaker month than what we’ve come to expect this year, with a surprising drop in the state’s labor force,” said Taner Osman, research manager at Beacon Economics and the Center for Economic Forecasting. “This suggests that employers will continue to struggle to find workers this year.”
