Orange County Sees Strongest Month of Job Additions in More Than a Year
Orange County just saw its biggest month-over-month increase to payrolls since April 2021after 22,800 jobs were added in October, according to the latest report released by the Employment Development Department of California.
That hiring binge brings Orange County’s unemployment rate to 2.8%, 200 basis points lower than 12 months ago and 100 basis points below California’s statewide unemployment rate. Orange County finally exceeded the level of jobs from February 2020, the month prior to the pandemic, for the first time. That was aided in part by hiring in professional and business services and education and health services, which together have added more than 28,000 combined jobs since February 2020.
Nine employment sectors added jobs in October, led by government hiring. That was buttressed by 3,800 positions in local government education services. Professional and business services added 5,000 jobs, 3,500 of which were in professional, scientific and technical positions. That specific field has increased payrolls by 5.2% year over year.
Overall, office-using sectors, widely considered to be within the professional and business services, financial activities and information sectors, added 6,100 jobs in October. That’s a reversal of the past few months when office-using jobs sectors reported losses.
This has come as the vacancy rate in the Orange County office market remains 2.7% above what it was at the end of 2019, and net absorption — measuring the difference between move-ins and move-outs — has fallen by more than 4.5 million square feet since the start of 2020. Tenants are still shedding under-utilized office space as the amount of available sublet space locally has reached a 15-year high of 4.3 million square feet, or about 1.5 million square feet more than one year ago.
Lenders such as Mr. Cooper and American Advisors Group have announced layoffs as interest rates rise and mortgage demand softens. But layoffs are beginning to spread across the region, affecting more sectors. Rivian Automotive, Teva Parental Medicines, Avanir Pharmaceuticals and Amazon have each announced local layoffs in the past few months that have added up to about 1,000 positions.
According to the Employment Development Department, most of the top employment sectors reported fewer job openings in October compared with September. Bucking that trend was the health care and social assistance subsector. Providence Health & Services, Children’s Hospital Orange County and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian were among the Orange County healthcare providers that saw an increase in job ads in October.
