Bay Area gains jobs in December, but losses jolt California

Fueled by an upswing in the South Bay, the Bay Area gained thousands of jobs in December 2025. California as a whole, however, suffered losses in a setback that capped a dreary economic year for the nation’s largest state.

The region added 2,300 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, according to a report released by the state Employment Development Department on Friday. Overall, the state lost 1,700.

Adjusted for seasonal volatility and including net changes in nonfarm payroll positions, the South Bay gained 4,800 jobs in December, while the East Bay shed 700 and the San Francisco-San Mateo region lost 2,500.

In the North Bay, Sonoma County added 800 jobs, Solano County gained 400, Napa County lost 100 and Marin County shed 400.

Despite gains made in December, the Bay Area ended 2025 with a loss of 20,000 jobs, the EDD report showed.

California also saw a loss of jobs for 2025 in a setback that marked the first time statewide payrolls have declined for a full year since the era of massive layoffs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state reported Friday.

“This December report shows the California economy continuing to stall and even go backward,” said Michael Bernick, an employment attorney with law firm Duane Morris and a former director of the state EDD.

The statewide jobless rate was 5.5% in December, a slight improvement from a revised estimate for November 2025 of 5.6% but the same as the 5.5% unemployment rate in October 2025, according to the report.

For all of 2025, California lost 11,200 jobs, the state agency disclosed.

“The state has evolved into a hermetically sealed job market, in which layoffs and discharges have not increased, but neither have hires,” Bernick said.

The annual loss for California marked the first yearly decline for the state since March 2021, according to the EDD, a period marred by severe job losses that arose from an array of business shutdowns and economic dislocations as a result of the pandemic.

“The job search market is terrible at present” in California, Bernick said. He added that the statewide employment sector is “among the worst I’ve seen in over 45 years in the field.”