Employers added jobs at a brisk pace in the South Bay in November and at a moderate rate in the East Bay, fresh evidence that the Bay Area employment market is on the mend, analysts said Friday.
"The economy has clearly turned the corner, and the South Bay is on the leading edge of that recovery," said Jordan Levine, director of economic research with Beacon Economics. "Now the improvement is picking up steam and spreading to other areas."
By far the strongest job growth in the Bay Area was posted by the South Bay, which powered to a gain of 2,800 jobs for the month, the state's Employment Development Department said. The East Bay added 400 jobs.
With the November job gains, the South Bay has added jobs for 15 consecutive months. This surge represents the longest such stretch of employment expansion for that region since a 16-month string that ended in September 2006, before the recession.
The weakest regions in the Bay Area in November were the San Francisco-San Mateo-Marin area, which lost 2,300 jobs; and Sonoma County, which shed 2,100 jobs.
The steep job losses in the San Francisco-San Mateo area may be primarily due to a surge in the dollar triggered by the solvency crisis in Europe, Levine said. Investors have snapped up dollars lately in a flight to safety, causing the dollar to appreciate against other currencies such as the euro and the yen and other Asian currencies. That put a damper on international tourism. San Francisco-area hotel and restaurant employers shed 1,400 jobs in November.
The San Francisco-San Mateo-Marin region also shed 1,300 construction jobs, which could be due to contractors deciding to delay building permits for new projects.
The sharp declines in those areas countered the gains in the South Bay and East Bay, leaving the Bay Area with an overall loss of 700 jobs for November.
Still, the Bay Area this year has added four times the number of jobs it added last year. Over the first 11 months of 2011, the Bay Area added 47,500 jobs, compared with 10,700 new jobs over the same period last year.
"The East Bay and the San Francisco region are in an up-and-down pattern," said Jeffrey Michael, director of the Stockton-based Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific. "The South Bay is the only area that is posting consistent job growth month after month."
The South Bay improvement meshes with a forecast commissioned by NOVA, a Sunnyvale-based economic development agency. The forecast said tech companies in the Bay Area are planning to increase employment in the coming year.
"This is not just an anecdote; it is not an exception," said Kris Stadelman, NOVA's executive director. "This is a trend. We are seeing a lot of people who are in our inventory of job seekers who are going back to work."
California overall posted November numbers that pointed to an improving labor market. Employers added 6,600 jobs statewide, according to the Employment Development Department's survey of employers.
The state's jobless rate improved to 11.3 percent, down from 11.7 percent in October, the department said. The jobless rate is culled from a separate survey of households.
Unemployment rates in the Bay Area also improved, according to an analysis of the department's figures.
The East Bay posted a November jobless rate of 9.9 percent, down from 10.1 percent the previous month. That was the first time since April 2009 that East Bay unemployment was below 10 percent.
"The East Bay is lagging behind other areas in turning the corner," Levine said. "But that region has found the bottom. Once the East Bay gets going, we expect it will be one of the strongest growth regions of California."
The South Bay had a 9.6 percent unemployment rate, down from 9.8 percent in October, while the San Francisco-San Mateo-Marin region had a jobless rate of 7.9 percent, down from 8.1 percent.
The upswing in the regional job market is being driven by the private sector.
In the South Bay, private companies added 3,200 jobs, while government agencies shed 400 positions. In the East Bay, private-sector employers added 900 jobs and government organizations jettisoned 500.
For the entire Bay Area in November, private employers added 800 jobs, while the government sector lost 1,500.
"November's good news is tempered by the realization that there are still 1 million jobs to recover in California from before the recession," said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. "The process of recovery is under way but still much slower than hoped for or needed."
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