Coronavirus hits Bay Area jobs, tech-heavy towns affected

As the US registered over 22 million job losses - nearly wiping out all the job gains since the Great Recession – Bay Area was not unaffected and lost 27,000 jobs in March, including tech-heavy Santa Clara County that lost 8,400 jobs.

According to The Mercury News, California lost nearly 100,000 jobs, first monthly job losses in 10 years.

The new report by Employment Development Department, released on Friday, said that statewide unemployment rate jumped to 5.3 per cent, a huge one-month increase from February's all-time record-low jobless rate of 3.9 per cent.

"We are now in a pandemic-induced recession here in the State of California," Governor Gavin Newsom said in a news briefing.

The Bay Area lost 27,200 jobs during March, the region's worst one-month job loss in nearly 11 years.

"The San Francisco-San Mateo region accounted for more than half of all positions shed in the Bay Area with a devastating loss of 13,700 jobs,' said the report.

However, the March jobs report doesn't necessarily reflect all the workers who have filed for unemployment after they were furloughed, let go temporarily, or suffered reduced hours.

At least 3.1 million workers in the state of California have lost their jobs over a five-week period that started on March 12, Newsom estimated.

Tech companies managed to weather the coronavirus economic hurricane, but only in Santa Clara County and the East Bay.

The tech sector lost 5,100 jobs in the San Francisco-San Mateo region.

According to the report, by the time the unemployment reports for the Bay Area roll in over the next couple of months, the Bay Area could suffer a loss of 835,000 jobs, according to an April 8 forecast issued by the Stockton-based Center for Business and Policy Research that's headed up by economist Jeffrey Michael.

Several businesses have shut their doors, furloughed employees, and cut jobs.

A San Francisco Chronicle report said that millions of Californians have filed for jobless benefits.

As President Donald Trump unveiled plans to reopen the economy, government reported 5.2 million more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the four-week total to 22 million.