"From 2019 to 2024, if California's employment in heavily remote job groups had grown at the nationwide rate, the state would have had 200,000 more jobs in 2024 than it actually had."
"Prior to the pandemic, California's job growth in several sectors in which employees often work remotely outpaced job growth in the rest of the country, the report authors said. But when the spread of COVID-19 pushed public and private employees to work from home, that trend reversed."
"Since 2019, employment in jobs that have high rates of remote work, such as those in the technology and finance sectors, grew by 16% in the rest of the U.S., while employment in those sectors only grew by 7% in California."
"LAO analyst Seth Kerstein, who is one of the authors of the report, emphasized that the missing jobs number is an estimate, not a certainty. In order for California to have maintained the same level of job growth compared to the rest of the country, "there's a lot that would need to happen economically," he said."
California’s employment growth in sectors with high remote-work rates outpaced the rest of the country before the pandemic. After COVID-19 increased remote work for public and private employees, that pattern reversed. From 2019 to 2024, employment in heavily remote job groups grew 16% in the rest of the U.S., while those sectors grew 7% in California. An estimate indicates California would have had about 200,000 more jobs in 2024 if its heavily remote job groups had grown at the nationwide rate. The estimate is not certain and depends on additional economic conditions. Higher wages and higher living costs, worker relocation to cheaper areas, and out-of-state workers accessing California employers remotely may contribute to the gap.
Read at Fresno Bee
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