Pemo TheodoreUnemployment fell by more than a full point throughout much of the Bay Area between September and October, according to monthly data from California’s Economic Department.
Among the three counties that connect to the Peninsula, Santa Clara County’s unemployment rate fell to 5.9% from September’s revised rate of 7%, San Mateo dropped to 6% from 7.1% and San Francisco’s drop topped both of those at 6.9%, down from 8.4% in September.
But that’s recent history in the battle to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The question for the future of that recovery is now focused on what happened Monday, the halfway point of November, when soaring daily new case rates across the state caused all three counties to be demoted in California’s four-color Covid danger level rankings. Santa Clara County fell to the bottom purple classification, and San Mateo and San Francisco dropped to red, next to the bottom.
The impact of those demotions is expected to hit November’s employment numbers in the way it restricts retail business activity through rules reducing the customer capacity of indoor businesses, particularly in the restaurant industry. Indoor restaurant dining was eliminated by Santa Clara County’s demotion and cut to 25% of normal capacity in San Mateo and San Francisco. Read more via SiliconValleyBusinessJournal
