Marin unemployment rate rises, but gets cushion from hospitality sector
Marin County’s unemployment rate has risen to 3.6% — from 2.5% a year ago — but continued growth in the hospitality industry has fed a year-over-year increase in jobs, according to state data released Friday.
From October 2022 to last month, the county gained 3,900 jobs overall, reaching 114,700, according to the California Employment Development Department. In the same time period, the leisure and hospitality industry added 2,600 jobs, the largest increase among sectors in the county, said Randy Weaver, a state labor market consultant.
“This gain accounted for 66% of the 3,900 job addition in total wage and salary jobs,” Weaver said. “Private education and health services saw the second largest year-over increase, rising by 1,300 jobs.”
The county’s unemployment rate was 3.5% in September.
Marin County’s labor force contracted by 600 people from September to October, to 132,800, Weaver said. The labor force is the sum of employed county residents and unemployed residents actively seeking work.
However, the county did experience a small labor force gain of 400 people from October 2022 to last month. Although the number is down from September and August, it is larger than all preceding months since March 2020, the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, when the labor force was 136,880 people, Weaver said. Weaver said this signals a trend toward recovery.
Eight hundred jobs were added from September to October. Private education and health services had the biggest month-to-month increase, with 400 jobs. Local government and leisure and hospitality tied for the second largest gain, both adding 200 jobs, Weaver said.
“The gain in leisure and hospitality was interesting, as this is typically the time of year when this industry sheds employment as it moves out of the peak summer season,” Weaver said.
Rob Eyler, chief economist of the Marin Economic Forum, said, “We’re still down from before the pandemic in terms of labor force and people that live in Marin County that are working.”
It is good news that there has been growth in the hospitality industry, Eyler said.
“But other than that, we’re pretty flat,” he said. “So we’re waiting to see what happens, and some of that is feeding off of what’s happening in the Bay Area more generally in terms of basically very anemic job growth.”
“And if there is jobs growth, it’s sort of more national in the sense that they’re still hiring from outside the Bay Area from Bay Area employers,” Eyler said.
Marin’s unemployment rate last month tied with Sonoma County and Inyo County for fifth-lowest among California’s 58 counties.
Weaver said the year-over-year rise in unemployment is a trend around the Bay Area.
In Sonoma County, the year-over-year rate rose 0.7%, to 3.6%; San Francisco jumped 1%, to 3.4%; and San Mateo County rose 1%, to 3.2%. San Mateo continues to hold the lowest unemployment rate in the state.
Statewide, the unadjusted unemployment rate was 4.8% last month, according to the report. Nationwide, it was 3.6%.
Marin County: 3.6%
State: 4.8%
U.S.: 3.6%
Corte Madera: 4.6%
Fairfax: 8.5%
Inverness: 10%
Larkspur: 1.7%
Mill Valley: 2.5%
Novato: 3.6%
Point Reyes Station: 0%
San Anselmo: 3.2%
San Rafael: 3.4%
Sausalito: 4.2%
Tamalpais/Homestead Valley: 2.3%
Tomales: 0%
Source: California Employment Development Department; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics