San Francisco, Riverside and San Bernardino counties saw the largest job gains in the nation from 2014 to 2015, according to newly released data from the Census Bureau.

Among the 50 U.S. counties with the largest workforces, these California counties topped the list with the highest percentage of employment growth.

San Francisco came out on top for the second year in a row. Employment there rose 6.6%, or 37,843 people, for a total of 611,140 employees in 2015, according to the Census Bureau’s annual County Business Patterns report.

Riverside County was No. 2 with an increase of 4.9%, or 25,284 people, for a total of 540,169 employees.


San Bernardino County rounded out the top three with an employment boost of 4.4%, or 24,396 workers, for a total of 578,755 employees.

Santa Clara County was ranked eighth, with an employment growth of 3.8%.

Job gains in Riverside and San Bernardino counties were led by growth in the transportation and warehousing sector. Riverside County saw an employment increase of 32.3% in that market, while San Bernardino County’s bump was 16.2%.

Although Los Angeles County did not make the top 10 list for employment growth, it is home to the largest number of business locations (265,112) and the most employees (4 million) of any county.


Also on Friday, the California Employment Development Department released figures showing that last month, the state’s unemployment rate fell below 5% for the first time since 2006.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunaga