Payroll employment peaked in March 2001 in each of the Bay Area regions. In April 2003, payroll employment had fallen 2.1% from the March 2001 peak in the East Bay with a 6.4% unemployment rate, 10.7% in San Francisco with a 5.8% unemployment rate, and 16.2% in San Jose with an 8.4% unemployment rate.
May 2003 unemployment rates decreased from April’s in each region, even as payroll employment fell even further from the March 2001 peak, across the Bay Area. This seemingly incongruous observation, resulting from a contraction in the labor force that outpaced a contraction in the number of available jobs, illustrates how a fall in the unemployment rate does not always tell the entire story or necessarily indicate good news.
Individual sector trend charts are also included so that changes in these important sectors are more readily identified. Six of the ten sectors experienced a decrease in employment from the previous month with the largest loss (-983 jobs) in Government, followed by Leisure & Hospitality (-804), Manufacturing (-552), Information Services (-529), Retail Trade (-317) and Construction (-22).
For more industry specific employment data, please click here.
Low interest rates have helped offset housing price increases that continue despite the slow economy, have helped keep Bay Area housing affordability relatively steady over the past year. However, there is concern about what will happen when the Fed raises interest rates, particularly if this happens before a real recovery has taken effect.
In April, the average California home sold for $363,930, requiring an minimum household income of $84,480 based on a typical 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 5.72% and assuming a 20% down payment. The same home sold for $317,120 in April 2002 when interest rates were 6.95%, requiring a minimum household income of $81,760.
It took a median time of 28 days to sell the average California home in April, and the unsold inventory index was 2.5 months (indicating the amount of time it would take to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate). Thirty-year fixed-mortgage rates averaged 5.81%. Prices were up 14.8% and sales down 9.3% from April 2002.
For more information on the housing market, click here.
Home building continued primarily in the eastern portions of the East Bay, with Brentwood, Dublin, Pleasanton, Pittsburg, and the Contra Costa Unincorporated Area all issuing more than 25 single-family permits in April. Emeryville, Dublin, and the Contra Costa Unincorporated Area each issued over 50 multi-family permits as well.
In April, Antioch permitted $1.5 million in new stores, Emeryville $2.7 million for new parking structures and $3.4 million in new stores; Livermore $5.2 million of new religious structures; Oakland $1.4 million new industrial; Pittsburg $2.8 million new stores and $1.9 million in new industrial; and San Leandro permitted $2.1 million in new stores, $1.2 million new industrial, and $1.1 million new office buildings.
For more information on construction, click here.
Bay Area shelter prices fell in May due to decreases in both rental prices and owner’s equivalent rent. Items Less Shelter data is a bi-monthly statistic that will next be released in July.
