California has one of the nation\u2019s weakest job markets<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cCalifornia is no longer the land of plentiful jobs,\u201d said Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist with BMO Capital Markets. \u201cThis is true even for California\u2019s technology industry, which has reached new heights of stock market capitalization but sheds jobs on a regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Measuring the annual pace of job growth among the states, California ranked 37th in 2025. In 2024, it was 32nd.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is no surprise that even with California\u2019s many economic advantages, the state ranks low in adding payroll jobs,\u201d said Michael Bernick, an employment attorney with law firm Duane Morris and a former director of the state Employment Development Department. \u201cOver the past few decades, California has built an edifice of hiring costs and regulations that discourage employers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weaknesses in the statewide job market might not relent anytime soon, some economists warn.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia continues to experience job growth well below the national average,\u201d said Steve Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. \u201cThe sluggish job trends are expected to continue into 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2025, California\u2019s job market lost jobs for the first time in a calendar year since 2020, a period that was marred by massive disruptions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fact that Silicon Valley has been a major driver of job growth in California, but Silicon Valley has hit the pause button,\u201d said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a San Jose-based think tank. \u201cEfficiency is the new buzzword.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SJM-L-CAJOBS-0207-90.jpg\")
Newsom\u2019s office has directed some of the blame for the state\u2019s employment troubles at President Donald Trump and his administration\u2019s policies, a situation that many states in the country are also having to endure.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, the entire U.S. job market is sputtering as a result of Trump\u2019s failed economy and tariff policies and immigration raids impacting employers and workers alike,\u201d said Brandon Richards, deputy director for rapid response in the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
However, the Trump administration\u2019s approach has jolted a wide array of industries in the state, Richards said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s policies are impacting many of California\u2019s job sectors, not just tech, including agriculture and beverage industries,\u201d Richards said, noting that agricultural and beverage exports are both falling in the state.<\/p>\n
While Newsom\u2019s office may be placing most of the blame on the Trump administration\u2019s policies, California\u2019s job market actually began to falter during Joe Biden\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n
Job totals in California rose by 7.7% in 2021. But its job market slowed to 2.6% growth in 2022 and 0.5% in 2023. California job totals perked up a bit in 2024, growing 0.9%.<\/p>\n
Then came 2025, which ushered in a loss of 11,200 jobs for a 0.1% decline in the statewide job totals. In contrast to California\u2019s weakness, hiring nationwide expanded by 0.4%, according to official figures posted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia will continue to rank low in job growth until it begins to address the core impediments to hiring,\u201d Bernick said. \u201cThe state has responded to the low job growth by funding various economic development programs and projects. These have marginal impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere around the country in 2025, nonfarm payroll job totals expanded by 1.8% in Missouri, 1.6% in North Carolina, and 1.4% in South Carolina. Pennsylvania, Utah, and Louisiana all experienced approximately 1.2% growth.<\/p>\n
Rivals such as Texas, Florida, New York, and Tennessee all added jobs as California was losing them.<\/p>\n
Job totals expanded by 0.9% in Texas, 0.7% in both New York and Tennessee, and 0.4% in Florida, this news organization\u2019s review of federal labor statistics shows.<\/p>\n
For December 2025, a jobless rate of 5.5% in California was the worst in the nation.<\/p>\n
Setbacks in the Bay Area have helped suppress hiring in California. In 2025, the region lost 20,000 jobs, a decline spawned by employment losses of 8,400 in the East Bay, 6,400 in the San Francisco-San Mateo region, and 3,500 in the South Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bay Area, once a leading job creator for California, has turned into a consistent laggard in recent years,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
The employment nosedive in the state has largely been fueled by the private sector.<\/p>\n
In 2025, private-sector employers slashed 31,400 jobs, while government employers added 20,200. The additions were mainly due to an increase of 45,800 local government jobs, which countered a loss of 9,100 state government jobs and 16,500 federal government positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a wave of private sector investment happening in many parts of the country,\u201d Bellisario, with the Bay Area Council Economic Institute,\u00a0said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n
California\u2019s economy boasts a $4.22 trillion value, the governor\u2019s office notes. Ranked by GDP, that would put California in 4th or 5th place worldwide<\/a>, depending on which report is used.<\/p>\nStill, GDP rankings might not matter as much for a state whose workers face a forbidding reality, Levy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSerious work is needed to restore competitiveness,\u201d Levy said. \u201cThis is not a time for boasting about how big our economy is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California\u2019s booming economy is one of the world\u2019s largest, but a peek behind the curtain exposes the forbidding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[389,184,387,7,9,8,390,391,392,332,383,13965,394,457,7153,1286,1533,181,6113,992,3938,100,993,143,395,396,88,397,198,2720,3628,200,203,1970,13895],"class_list":{"0":"post-168108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-alameda-county","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-california-headlines","13":"tag-california-news","14":"tag-central-contra-costa","15":"tag-concord","16":"tag-contra-costa-county","17":"tag-east-bay","18":"tag-economy","19":"tag-employment","20":"tag-fremont","21":"tag-gavin-newsom","22":"tag-job-cuts","23":"tag-jobs","24":"tag-keywee","25":"tag-latest-headlines","26":"tag-layoffs","27":"tag-marin-county","28":"tag-napa-county","29":"tag-news","30":"tag-north-bay","31":"tag-oakland","32":"tag-peninsula","33":"tag-san-francisco-county","34":"tag-san-jose","35":"tag-san-mateo-county","36":"tag-santa-clara-county","37":"tag-solano-county","38":"tag-sonoma-county","39":"tag-south-bay","40":"tag-sunnyvale","41":"tag-technology","42":"tag-unemployment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"NVIDIA's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SJM-L-NVIDIA-1.jpg\")
Nvidia headquarters complex in Santa Clara, seen in September 2025 in an aerial view.\u00a0Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/US_California_Governor_Podcast_11059.jpg\")
Gov. Gavin Newsom appears at an economics conference in Los Angeles, Feb. 26, 2025.\u00a0(AP File)<\/p>\n