California gained jobs in March as unemployment rate drops to 5.3%

California added 28,700 payroll jobs in March, lowering its unemployment rate to 5.3% despite a series of high-profile layoffs that have rocked the tech sector.

The gains were driven by nearly 28,000 new jobs in the health services and private education sectors, according to figures released Friday by the state's Employment Development Department.

Also recording small gains were government, construction and financial jobs, though employment in those industries was lower than a year ago.

The job growth since February pushed the state's unemployment rate down a tenth of a point, from 5.4% in January and February. Last year, it topped out at 5.6% and it was last at 5.3% in May 2025.

"As we've seen throughout the post-pandemic period, healthcare was the big gainer among sectors, responsible for nearly all of the gains," said Michael Bernick, a former director of the state jobs agency.

The job growth in healthcare was partially driven by the return of thousands of Kaiser Permanente workers who had been on strike in California and Hawaii. But there also were gains in long-term care, in home healthcare and at practitioners' offices.

The state jobs picture still lags behind the nation, which recorded a 4.3% unemployment rate in March, when employers added 178,000 jobs.

In California, major tech firms have laid off thousands of workers over the last few years. Just this month, Facebook owner Meta; L.A.'s Snap, operator of Snapchat; and corporate database behemoth Oracle announced more.

Hollywood studios also have been laying off thousands of workers amid a wave of consolidation and a slowdown in streaming film production. Disney is expected to lay off as many as 1,000 workers in the coming weeks.

Bernick said that while the layoffs have attracted widespread attention, they account for only a fraction of California's massive economy.

In December, 1.3% percent of workers were laid off in California, a number that has grown since July 2022 when it was 0.6%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

However, the current figure is in line with rates over the last 25 years, with the exception of the recession in June 2009 and the pandemic in May 2020 when it was markedly higher, the data show.

Helping prop up the state's economy is the massive investment in AI taking place in Silicon Valley - even as companies cite it as a reason for their layoffs - and the resurgent defense and aerospace sectors in Southern California.

The brighter payroll jobs picture came despite a fall in total civilian employment of 39,600 jobs, to 18.7 million, a figure that includes seasonal agricultural jobs and the self-employed, such as independent contractors.

Also falling by 56,700 was the civilian labor force, to 19.8 million, which also includes agricultural workers and the self-employed.

Bernick said the decline in the labor force could reflect workers moving to other states and the federal crackdown on undocumented workers.

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