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Job openings in California plunged by nearly 30% over the past year and the state’s unemployment rate ticked higher to remain the second-worst in the country, according to new federal data.
The Democrat-run Golden State — — which implemented a controversial $20 minimum wage hike for fast food workers in April — had 641,000 job openings in August, compared to 920,000 in August 2023, the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed.
Meanwhile, the year-over-year unemployment rate in September increased to 5.3% from 5% — more than a percentage point above the national rate of 4.1%, according to the data. Only Nevada had a higher jobless rate at 5.6%.
“Our small-business-owning members have been telling us for many months that finding qualified employees has been a top problem for them, muscled out lately only by inflation,” National Federation of Independent Business California Director John Kabateck told conservative news outlet The Center Square.
“Some of the decline in job openings can be attributed to them just giving up.”
The $20 minimum wage law, signed last fall by Gov. Gavin Newsom, has been blamed for job cuts and store closures across the state as employers struggle to keep up with rising costs.
Between last fall and January, California fast-food restaurants slashed 9,500 jobs in anticipation of the new wage requirements, according to a report by the Hoover Institution in April, when the new law took effect.
Employers like Pizza Hut and Round Table Pizza began by firing more than 1,000 delivery drivers, while others like El Pollo Loco and Jack in the Box said they will ramp up the use of robotics to slim down their staff, according to the report.
The higher minimum wage – up from $16 an hour last year – has also been blamed for menu price increases and restaurant closures, including Shake Shack and taco chain Rubio’s Coastal Grill.
“In general, the extremely high cost of living in the state and unaffordable housing in major cities has resulted in many employers struggling to hire entry level jobs in retail, construction and home care despite minimum wage growth in fast food,” Ted Jenkin, co-founder and business consultant at oXYGen Financial, told The Post.
The state has also seen a massive decrease in private sector jobs — blamed partly on high taxes and rampant crime from progressive policies — while government jobs have skyrocketed.
Since September 2022, California has lost a net 154,000 jobs in the private sector and gained 361,000 jobs in the public sector, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, California’s nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisor.
“Tech companies overhired post-pandemic as they ramped back up in 2020 and 2021 and are not experiencing the growth to maintain those hires,” Jenkin said.
The federal jobs data does suggest that California is continuing to create new jobs in aggregate, even though the unemployment rate remains stuck at 5.3%.
California has seen an average growth of 16,500 jobs per month at an annual rate of 1.1%, above last year’s 0.9% pace of 12,900 jobs a month, according to Newsom’s office.
In October, California gained thousands of new jobs for the 53rd month in a row, according to a press release from Newsom’s office.
California’s growth is powered by its workers and innovators, the driving forces behind our consistent economic growth and expanding job market,” Newsom said in a statement.
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