FILE - In this June 13, 2012, file photo, a job seeker talks to a recruiter at a job fair expo in Anaheim, Calif. The U.S. economy is showing signs of finally bottoming out: Americans are on the move again after record numbers had stayed put, more young adults are leaving their parents' homes to take a chance with college or the job market, once-sharp declines in births are leveling off and poverty is slowing. Not all is well. The jobless rate remains high at 8.1 percent. Home ownership dropped for a fifth straight year to 64.6 percent, the lowest in more than a decade, hurt by more stringent financing rules and a shift to renting. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
The Bay Area resumed its role in August as the strongest job creator for the Golden State with a sturdy performance that produced more than half the jobs gained in all of California last month, state labor officials reported Friday.
Bay Area employers added 6,100 jobs, which was 51 percent of the 12,000 jobs added statewide, according to the state's Employment Development Department.
All three of the region's major urban centers participated in the employment upswing, according to seasonally adjusted numbers from the EDD, with technology driving the growth. The South Bay gained 1,900 jobs, the East Bay 500 and the San Francisco-San Mateo-Marin region 3,500, the EDD reported.
Still, the sluggish gains in
the East Bay compared with those of the tech-heavy South Bay and San Francisco regions underscore an emerging shift, some analysts say, that gives the region two different economies."There are now two job markets in the Bay Area," said Michael Bernick, a research fellow with the Milken Institute and a former director of the EDD. "One is the traditional economy that is surviving, but not really growing. The second is the social media and Internet commerce economy that is hiring rapidly. That technology economy also is generating spinoff jobs in hospitality, leisure and retail."
California's jobless rate improved to 10.6 percent in August, down from 10.7 percent in July.
Bay Area unemployment rates also improved, according
to an analysis of the EDD figures by Beacon Economics. The East Bay jobless rate was 8.9 percent, down from 9.1 percent the month before; the South Bay's was 8.4 percent, down from 8.5 percent; and the San Francisco-San Mateo-Marin region's was 6.8 percent, down from 7 percent.Although the South Bay continues to add jobs at a brisk pace, the region isn't growing as quickly as its neighbor to the north.
"The South Bay is a leader in California, and is leading the California recovery, but it has company now in San Francisco," said Jeffrey Michael, director of the Stockton-based Business Forecasting Center at University of the Pacific.
While tech industries are driving the overall recovery, the strongest job growth in both the East Bay and South Bay in August was construction. The South Bay added 1,000 construction jobs, while the East Bay gained 500. In the San Francisco metro area, the strongest employment sector was hotels and restaurants, which gained 2,600 jobs, the Beacon analysis showed.
The Bay Area's strong gains in August more than wiped out the job losses for July, when the region shed 4,800 jobs.
So far this year, the Bay Area has added more than 61,000 jobs, far more than the roughly 11,000 it gained in the same eight months last year.
The Bay Area's employment surge appears poised to persist, primarily because businesses that wish to avoid hiring more workers are using technology tools to increase productivity, economists said.
"Bay Area companies supply the software, communications tools, hardware, social networking and Internet products and services that employers demand," said Jordan Levine, an economist with Beacon. "We're going to continue to see demand for technology products."
Contact George Avalos at 925-977-8477. Follow him at Twitter.com/george_avalos.
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