- June 19, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
Providing fun once again powered Southern California’s pandemic-era jobs rebound with almost half of May’s hiring coming from leisure and hospitality industries previously hammered by “stay at home” orders and a reluctance to travel.
My trusty spreadsheet, filled with state job figures, found local bosses had 7.28 million employees last month in the four counties covered by the Southern California News Group. That’s up 69,700 in a month vs. 69,400 hires in April and an average 50,100 monthly hiring pace in the past year’s recovery.
Letting various attractions reopen with limit capacity helped spur another Southern California hiring spree as most coronavirus-linked business limitations were eased or lifted. California became all-but fully reopened on June 15.
The recent hires cut Southern California’s jobless rate in May to 8.7% vs. a revised 9.44% the previous month. But it’s nowhere near 4.2% of February 2020, the last time the…
