Job boom in Bay Area surges to best month in four years

The Bay Area economy muscled up in April to produce more than 13,000 jobs, marking the best one-month performance in four years, a new state government report released on Friday shows.

The Bay Area accounted for 29 percent of all the jobs added in California during April — even though the nine-county region has only 24 percent of the jobs statewide.

“The job growth seems to be getting stronger. It looks like it’s accelerating,” said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

The Bay Area added 9,600 jobs in January, 9,900 in February, and 12,500 in March, the EDD figures show.

The April employment surge was led by gains in the East Bay and South Bay, the state’s Employment Development Department reported. The Bay Area added 13,300 jobs, while the East Bay gained 3,800 positions, the South Bay gained 3,400 jobs and the San Francisco-San Mateo region added 2,000 jobs, according to the EDD report. All the numbers were adjusted for seasonal variations.

“The job growth in the Bay Area has been very consistent, and it remains consistent,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist with San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank.

The one-month gain for the Bay Area was the best single month since May 2015, when the region also added 13,300 jobs.

“The surge continues,” Levy said.

California added 46,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in April, and the statewide unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3 percent, the EDD reported.

“The state continues to benefit from its strong basics, a diversified economy, the tech explosion in the Bay Area, hiring in education and health care, construction throughout the state, and a strong leisure and hospitality industry,” said Michael Bernick, a fellow with the Milken Institute and a former EDD director.

The robust Bay Area economy helps power the state, as well.

“The employment gains in California are due to the ongoing strength of the Bay Area economy, and the employment gains in the Bay Area are due to the strength of the tech sector,” said Robert Kleinhenz, an economist and executive director of research with Beacon Economics.

Tech companies during April added 1,100 jobs in the San Francisco-San Mateo region, 600 in the South Bay and 600 in the East Bay, according to an analysis of the EDD seasonally adjusted figures by Beacon Economics and UC Riverside.

The strongest industries in Santa Clara County in April were construction, which gained 1,500 jobs, and the restaurant, hotel, arts, and entertainment sector, which added 1,300 positions, Beacon’s analysis found.

The East Bay’s most robust industry in April was health care, which gained 2,500 positions; manufacturing, which added 900 jobs; and construction, up 700 positions.

The San Francisco-San Mateo region’s strongest industry in April was health care, which added 2,000 jobs, the Beacon assessment determined.

Some potential storm clouds could darken the bright trends, however. Vitner said some warning signs have appeared in the wake of some initial public offerings for tech companies. Uber’s IPO last week, for example, was considered a disappointment, with the ride-hailing giant closing down more than 7 percent from its opening price.

“Most folks felt the private valuations on the new unicorns were somewhat inflated,” Vitner said. “That could slow the tech sector down a little bit.”

On the other hand, some geopolitical factors such as the prospect of a trade war involving the United States and China don’t appear to have emerged as an obstacle at this point.

“The trade dispute hasn’t slowed the tech sector in any way,” Vitner said.

Over the first one-third of 2019, the Bay Area economy is performing more strongly than the same four-month period the prior year, this news organization’s analysis of the EDD figures shows.

During the January-through-April period of 2019, the Bay Area added 45,300 jobs, a far stronger pace of employment growth than the 28,400 jobs the nine-county region added during the first four months of 2018.

The trends in the Bay Area have encouraged economists to expect that the region will power ahead with more employment gains for the foreseeable future.

“There is a lot more runway for job growth in the Bay Area,” Kleinhenz said. “This is a long-playing, very favorable story to be telling about the Bay Area economy.”

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