Bosses in Orange County added 5,600 workers in July — 28% above the year’s hiring pace, bringing employment to 98.8% of pre-pandemic levels.
My trusty spreadsheet, filled with state job figures released Friday, found local bosses had 1.66 million workers in July, up 73,400 in 12 months. However, July employment was 25,000 below February 2020, the last month before coronavirus shackled the economy. Remember, 272,300 O.C. jobs were lost in 2020’s COVID-19 lockdowns.
Job growth took an unexpected uptick as summer got in full gear. Employment was expected to stagnate as the Federal Reserve tried to cool an overheated economy while bosses struggled to fill open positions. However, July’s hiring pace in Orange County was 28% faster than the 4,383 added per month in 2022’s first six months.
It’s been wild times in the job market. In 2021, employment grew at a 7,667 monthly pace while the economy emerged from coronavirus lockdowns. Local bosses boosted staff at a 2,300 monthly pace in 2018-19 before we knew the word coronavirus.
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More jobs mean fewer are jobless. O.C.’s unemployment rate was 2.8% in July compared with 2.9% in the previous month and 6.4% a year earlier. Joblessness was 2.8% in February 2020.
The employment recovery has not been an across-the-board rebound. Let’s look at how O.C. employment fared in key industries since coronavirus landed, ranked by their recovery in job counts …
Orange C …