San Diego jobless rate falls to its lowest level all year. Leisure, hospitality hiring lead the pack

San Diego County’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in 10 months.

The jobless rate was 4.1 percent in April, down from 4.4 percent in March, state labor officials said Friday. It was the lowest unemployment has been in the region since July 2023. It was still higher than the national average of 3.5 percent, but lower than the 4.8 percent California average.

Leisure and hospitality led hiring with 2,600 jobs added in a month. Work in the sector includes positions at hotels, bars, casinos and restaurants. Other big gains were in private education and health services, as well as government (mainly education), with 1,800 new jobs each.

Ray Major, chief economist at the San Diego Association of Governments, said many industries are still recovering from COVID-19 and trying to return to where they were before. He said that was especially the case, in terms of overall hiring with leisure and hospitality.

“I know people think the pandemic was a long time ago,” Major said. “But it hit industries so hard.”

He said the low unemployment rate wasn’t a sign the economy was booming or that workers were feeling like they were getting ahead of inflation. A growing number of people, Major said, have second jobs.

In April, 8.3 million Americans held multiple jobs, up from 7.6 million at the same time last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data isn’t broken down by metro area, but Major reasoned some of the new hires in San Diego might be on their second job.

One reason the unemployment rate looked a little better in April: Fewer people looking for work. San Diego County’s labor force — adults who either have a job or are actively looking for one — took an unexpected drop to 1.58 million, down 15,900 in a month. That could mean workers have given up on trying to find a job they want, Major said, or just left San Diego.

From March to April, other industries to gain jobs were construction, adding 1,000; Financial activities (real estate, insurance, investments) with 200; and trade, transportation and utilities (mostly retail) with 100.

The most job openings in April were for registered nurses, according to state data that aggregates job postings during the month. There were 2,619 job postings for nurses, followed by posts for retail salespeople with 2,310, sales representatives with 1,201 and first-line supervisors of retail workers with 1,145.

The top employers, by job postings, were Sharp Healthcare, UC San Diego, Scripps Health and Apple.

When adjusted for seasonal swings, the San Diego County unemployment rate in April was 4.4 percent, down from 4.5 percent the previous month, said Beacon Economics. That compares to the seasonally adjusted U.S. average of 3.9 percent and 5.3 percent in California — the highest in the nation.

“The state continues to struggle with its labor supply, which remained essentially unchanged in April,” wrote Beacon Economics in its analysis. “Since February 2020, California’s labor force has fallen by 246,200 workers, a 1.3 percent decline. In comparison, over the past 12 months, the nation’s labor force has increased by 0.8 percent.”

On an annual basis in San Diego County, private education and health services added the most jobs with 15,600. It was followed by leisure and hospitality with 5,400, government with 5,200, construction with 3,000, services (laundry, maintenance, religious) with 1,200, and trade transportation and utilities with 400.

The high-paying professional and business services sector has had the most losses with 9,500 positions gone. Work in the sector includes jobs in legal, scientific, waste management and architecture. Other sectors to lose jobs were manufacturing, down 4,100; financial activities (real estate, insurance, investments), down 2,000; and information (broadcasting, telecommunications, newspapers), down 1,300.

State officials do not seasonally adjust jobless rates for individual counties. Compared with other parts of California, San Diego County landed in the middle with its unadjusted rate of 4.1 percent.

The rate was 4.5 percent in Los Angeles County, 3.7 percent in Orange County, 3.4 percent in San Francisco County, 3.8 percent in Santa Clara County, 6.7 percent in Santa Cruz County and 4.9 percent in Riverside County.