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California’s labor force grew twice as much in 2024 than originally estimated, according to a Los Angeles-based economics firm.
The state’s employment numbers were also mildly overestimated during that time, Beacon Economics stated in a report based on revised data released by the California Employment Department.
Between December 2023 and December 2024, an estimated 125,400 workers began working in California, more than twice the 57,300 originally estimated.
“Over the last few years, California has added far more payroll jobs than workers, which typically suggests a sharp downward revision to the employment numbers when a new year of data starts on top of new benchmarks,” said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics, in a statement. “The reason the 2024 employment revisions were not as bad as they might have been is due to the growth in the state’s labor force.”
Employment growth over the same period was reduced from one percent to 0.9 percent, about 100,000 fewer jobs than originally believed and a smaller reduction than originally expected.
That discrepancy can be attributed to an undercounting of immigrants during the past few years, Thornberg said.
