California leads in job growth

California added more jobs between July of 2014 and July of this year than any other state.

The state, which has seen its unemployment rate drop six points since the worst part of the recession in February 2010, added 494,000 non-farm jobs during that period, according to the California Economic Development Department.

That was well ahead of Texas and Florida, which added 271,500 and 260,500 non-farm jobs respectively during that time, according to the state’s Economic Development Department.

Those numbers, part of the department’s annual Labor Day assessment of the state’s job market that it released Wednesday, show that California has led the nation in economic expansion since the bottom of the recession, said Patrick W. Henning Jr., department director.

“Many Californians have struggled to regain their foothold in the job market, but thanks to their resilience and the state’s current jobs expansion, the Golden State is back,” Henning said in a statement.

Ten of the state’s 11 major job sectors posted year-over-year job gains in July, with the largest gains recorded in the professional and business services sector, which added 156,100 jobs. Three other job sectors – trade, transportation and utilities, leisure and hospitality and education and health services – added more than 50,000 jobs each during that time, the department stated.

“Those are not surprising numbers,” said Jordan Levine, economist and director of economic research with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. “Our own numbers turned up the same things. The best news is that much of the job growth is happening in the high-skilled sectors.”