Major Markets that Have Not Recovered from COVID Job Losses

Despite deep losses during the early months of the pandemic, the nation at large has grown total employment approximately 4% since February 2020. However, not all markets have totally recovered all the job losses seen during that decline. Los Angeles total employment sits nearly 60,000 jobs below its pre-pandemic employment rate, marking the most severe decline nationwide and translating to a job base that is 1.3% below the pre-COVID norm. San Francisco claims the worst relative difference, with total employment 3.4% behind February 2020 levels, equating to nearly 45,000 fewer jobs in March 2024. Two other California markets – Oakland and San Jose – also made the list of markets that haven’t recovered from pandemic-era job losses. Notably missing from this list are any Sun Belt markets, with the slight exception of Memphis, where March employment was just 1,400 jobs below its pre-pandemic total, according to the latest metro-level data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.