Sonoma County jobless rate drops to 3% in March, lowest in pandemic

The local jobless rate of 3% in March declined from 3.5% in February and was well below the 6.7% level from a year ago, according to state officials.|

BILL SWINDELL

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

April 18, 2022

Sonoma County unemployment rates

he job gains reflect a local economic recovery over the past year as a result of vaccination efforts that have placed the infection level at a lower rate.

March 2022: 3.0%

February: 3.5% (revised)

January 2022: 4.0%

December 2021: 3.4%

November 2021: 3.8%

October 2021: 4.2%

September 2021: 4.4%

August 2021: 5.3%

July 2021: 5.7%

June 2021: 6.1%

May 2021: 5.5%

April 2021: 6.2%

March 2021: 6.7%

February 2021: 7.0%

Source: California Employment Development Department

Sonoma County’s unemployment rate dropped to 3% in March, reaching the lowest level since COVID-19 struck throughout the country more than two years ago.

The local jobless rate declined from a revised 3.5% in February and was well below the 6.7% level from a year ago in March, the state Employment Development Department (EDD) reported Friday.

The current rate is a significant drop from the 15.2% level of April 2020 at the height of the pandemic and is nearing the 2.8% jobless figure registered in February 2020 before COVID-19.

The overall civilian labor force in the county was at 249,100 workers in March, which was up 8,400 from a year ago but still almost 6,000 less before the virus struck, said Sonoma State University economist Robert Eyler.

The two areas where the jobs have largely not returned to pre-pandemic levels have been education and leisure and hospitality. The latter category had 23,700 workers employed last month, which was almost 2,000 below from when COVID-19 struck, Eyler said.