The Center for Jobs and the Economy has released our full analysis of the April Employment Report from the California Employment Development Department. For additional information and data about the California economy visit www.centerforjobs.org/ca.

As discussed in our preliminary analysis, the numbers for April show continued strong employment gains, further increasing  the offset to the anemic results for the last quarter of 2021.  The nonfarm job numbers in contrast show a weakening trend, with California’s 41,400 increase coming in third behind Texas at 62,800 and Florida at 58,600.

California’s recovery remains slow compared to the other states.  With these latest postings, California employment was still 385,800 short of rebuilding to the pre-pandemic level, while 28 other states have already surpassed this milestone.  In nonfarm jobs, California was still 239,900 below the pre-pandemic peak, while 14 other states have moved beyond this level.  Most of the gains recorded in recent months continue to be from rebuilding the jobs that were closed in the prior series of state orders rather than moving back into the growth mode required to improve economic mobility prospects for a broader range of the population.  The state is still struggling to get back to where it was, not to where it should be.

Using the unadjusted numbers to show results by average wage level, the higher wage industries finally moved into positive territory, while the medium wage industries continued to track the overall jobs total.  Lower wage industries while improving with seasonal hiring underway, still lagged the most.

The potential for continued jobs expansion still is there.  In the latest data for March, there were 1.28 million unfilled job openings at the end of the month, only slightly off the previous high of 1.29 million in February.  Labor shortages, specifically labor with the requisite skills, continue to be a constraint on turning these openings into operating jobs.  The current trends, as discussed below, suggest that requisite skill labor will be an increasing barrier to further job additions in the coming months.