Southern California job growth falls 66%

Southern California’s jobs story is not a collapse. But it is a clear slowdown. Through March 2026, the region added 43,400 jobs from a year earlier — and that is about 66% below the 126,500 annual pace it averaged since 2010. (redlandsdailyfacts.com) That gap matters because this is not just one county wobbling for a month. The(labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov) Angeles, Orange County, and the Inland Empire — and the sectors losing momentum are exactly the ones tied to freight, goods movement, back-office(bls.gov)and. (redlandsdailyfacts.com) ### Where is the slowdown showing up? Start with Los Angeles County. Payrolls were up 15,600 from March(redlandsdailyfacts.com)rivate education and health services, especially ambulatory health care and social assistance. (labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov) The Inland Empire looked similar. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario added 3,900 jobs over the year, which is just 0.2% growth. Month to month, it added 4,900 jobs in March, but again the gains were concentrated in health care and local government. (labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov) So yes — jobs are still being added. But the mix is doing a lot of the talking. ### Which sectors are dragging? In Los Angeles County, trade, transportation, and utilities lost 3,200 jobs in March from February. Transportation, warehousing, and utilities alone lost 2,000. Professional and business services lost another 2,800. Manufacturing also slipped. (labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov) In the Inland Empire, the same pattern showed up even more directly. Trade, transportation, and utilities fell by 2,600 over the month, with transportation and warehous(labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov) business services were down 5,500 and manufacturing was down 4,000. (labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov) Basically, the region is still creating jobs — but more of them are in hospitals, clinics, and social assistance agencies, while freight-heavy and office-linked sectors are thinning out. ### Why(labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov)rowth.” It is driven by specific kinds of job growth. A region adding nurses and home health aides is not the same as a region adding dispatchers, forklift operators, import handlers, temp staffing workers, and transportation managers. That distinction matters most in the Inland Empire and the LA basin, where logistics tenants exp(labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov)portation and warehousing jobs are falling instead, companies usually get more cautious about new leases, expansions, and renewals. That is an inference from the sector mix, but it fits the March data pretty cleanly. (labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov) ### Is this just California being weak? Not exactly. California added 28,700 payroll jobs in March, and the statewide unemployment rate edged down to 5.3%. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 4.3%, and March hires rose to 5.6 million while job openings held at 6.9 million. (labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov) So the national labor market still looks active. Southern California’s problem is narrower — slower local hiring, plus a job mix that is tilting away from the sectors that usually feed industrial demand. ### What’s the bottom lin(labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov)e specific. Job growth is still positive, but it is much weaker than the region’s normal pace, and the weak spots are the freight-and-warehouse parts of the economy. That makes the next stretch look more selective — especially for 3PLs, distributors, and other labor-sensitive occupiers deciding how much space they really need.