Trade Transportation Is Driving Employment Growth in OC
The market has staved off massive job loss through the pandemic, a stark contrast from the Financial Crisis.
Orange County has steadily regained jobs since the onset of the pandemic. The latest employment report from JLL shows that the market unemployment rate has fallen to 4.1%, as of November 2021. Unemployment is down .6% from October, when the unemployment rate was recorded at 4.7%, and 2.5% from November of last year, when unemployment in the market was 6.6%.
Trade transportation and utilities are leading the job gains. The employment sector gained 4,500 jobs, representing 47% of the total monthly increase in nonfarm employment, according to the report. It is the largest increase of any employment sector.
Office using jobs are also driving a significant employment growth in Orange County, gaining 6,300 jobs. Orange County gained 9,500 jobs month-over-month in November, and it has gained 93,900 jobs since the start of the pandemic.
Orange County’s job gains this year are a stark contrast to employment trends in the market during the Financial Crisis, when the unemployment rate climbed to 12.8%, according to JLL research. In the last downturn, the market’s concentration in financing and mortgage-related jobs made it the epicenter of job loss in the country. Thanks to a combination of job diversity and different underlying fundamentals of the pandemic-triggered recession, Orange County’s job market has performed much differently.
At the onset of the pandemic, JLL released a similar employment report to track the job trends in the market. At that time, Orange County had seen the most significant layoffs in the restaurant, retail and hospitality sectors, unsurprisingly; however, job losses from other sectors accounted for half of unemployment in the region. The region’s robust tourist market certainly exposes Orange County to the current crisis, but not on the same scale that mortgage companies did in 2008.
In addition, much of the job losses—like those related to theme parks—have been temporary, which has helped the market quickly recover.
While there has been an overall upward trend in employment growth in the market, some sectors are continued to see layoffs through the end of 2020. Real estate and aerospace were among two of the industries to see a surge in layoffs in July and August, according to data from JLL. Real estate in particular saw a 60% increase layoffs during these two months.