SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Hiring in California slowed down in June as employers tried to coax reluctant workers back into their pre-pandemic jobs before expanded unemployment benefits expire in September.
The state gained 73,500 jobs last month. It had been averaging more than 100,000 new jobs over the past few months. More than 2 million jobs were lost in two months last year after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the first statewide stay-at-home order in the U.S. because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Since February, we’ve averaged 111,740 new jobs per month," Gov. Newsom said in a press release. "These are promising figures that represent paychecks for Californians, but we still have a long way to go and refuse to take anything for granted."
The state has since regained just over 1.4 million of those jobs. The unemployment rate held steady at 7.7% compared to May, or nearly half of what it was. But it is still well above the 5.9% rate for the country.
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