You know, I read something the other day from CalMatters Housing that really got me thinking about what we're dealing with here in California heading into the election season. Apparently, while all these candidates are out there making promises left and right, hardly any of them are talking about what might be the most pressing issue affecting everyday people: jobs. The state has been struggling ever since the pandemic shut everything down, and we're still carrying a massive number of unemployed workers with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
Here's where it gets concerning. According to CalMatters, when you dig deeper into the employment numbers, the picture becomes even tougher than the headline figures suggest. California's labor force has actually shrunk significantly over the past year, which kind of masks how bad things really are underneath. The official unemployment rate looked like it was around 5.1 percent in July, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg. The state's biggest job growth has been in healthcare, but that sector depends heavily on government spending, which has been getting cut back.
The real story comes when you look at what economists call underemployment. CalMatters reported that California's underemployment rate tells a much more honest story than the standard unemployment number. This measure counts people who want full-time work but can only find part-time jobs, along with those who have kind of given up on looking. That rate was significantly higher than the official number, making California's job situation among the worst in the country.
Even more alarming are the figures from an organization that looks at what they call "true unemployment" or functional unemployment. This measures how many people are working jobs that don't even pay a living wage. According to CalMatters, some regions of the state are seeing rates in this category that are just staggering, especially in rural areas and some major urban centers. These numbers paint a pretty grim picture of economic opportunity across California.
What strikes me most is that CalMatters points out how silent our political leaders have been on this issue. With elections coming up, you'd think this would be front and center in the conversation, but apparently it's not getting much attention from candidates or sitting officeholders.
What I am seeing locally here in the Bay Area and down in the Fremont area is that these employment challenges are hitting differently depending on what part of the market we're talking about. For families and individuals trying to buy homes or sell property, job stability matters enormously. When people are underemployed or worried about finding adequate work, it affects their ability to qualify for mortgages and their willingness to make major real estate moves. The real estate market is only as healthy as the job market underneath it, and if people don't feel secure in their employment, they're going to be cautious about taking on big financial commitments. This is something every buyer and seller in our region needs to understand as they're making decisions about their property.
