San Diego County’s Unemployment Rate may Surge Due to COVID

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(Newswire.net — October 21, 2020) — In June of 2020, the unemployment rate of San Diego, California dropped to 13.9%, but there are fears that this number may surge again due to the COVID-19 economy. 

According to Nakase|Wade, one of California best employment lawyer for employers at, one large question regarding the high unemployment rate during this time is whether the extra $600 a week on unemployment check is helping or hurting the economy. While those benefits have since expired, businesses were getting very frustrated because their workers were making more on unemployment and didn’t want to go back to work as a result. Nakase|Wade law firm’s lawyers are California employer defense attorneys

While the unemployment rate was down 15% from the previous month, with August and September 2020 came the forcing of a lot of businesses to shut down due to the pandemic.

Within just one year, San Diego has dropped over 150,000 jobs due to the pandemic while just last year, the unemployment rate was a mere 3.3% with additional 25,700 jobs.

In June, the unemployment rate in San Diego was 13.9% which was just above the national unemployment rate of 11.2% while still being below California’s at 15.1%.

While adjusting for seasonal changes, the unemployment rate in San Diego went down to 13.7% and 14.9% in California. Because of these numbers, it was said that San Diego’s job market had a large turnaround in the month of June with far less unemployment than before.

With that being said, this might go back to a higher unemployment rate due to the large spreading of COVID in San Diego County.

While the pandemic was a threat to the economy and employment rate at the start, it has grown into a larger threat than anyone had ever expected it to be. There are fears that the employment rate and economy will continue to plummet and get worse until there is a vaccine to counter the disease.

The biggest gains in employment and economy were reflected in June because businesses were able to reopen. In just one month, leisure and hospitality businesses added a large 35,000 jobs thus showing the biggest gains in jobs.

Following close behind that was retail, trade, transportation, and utilities with over 9,500 jobs being added. The largest gain in this realm was retail at clothing stores along with motor vehicle businesses.

While many businesses are calling this loss of job letting employees go, some economists argue that this loss of jobs should be seen more as furloughs since the jobs spike when businesses are reopened again.

While April was the bottom pit of the unemployment rate, there are arguments that the economic downfall is not tied to anything wrong with the economy but is instead tied to businesses being shut down.

The economy right now is being compared to that of a hot air balloon. This hot air balloon is tied to the ground, and that rope is known as the virus. When the virus is gone, the balloon shoots back into the air, thus exemplifying that there is nothing wrong with the economy itself, just the fact that businesses are shut down.

However, not everyone has this same confidence in the economy. Many find that the amount of people filing for unemployment has skyrocketed while the job openings have plummeted.

Another factor in whether or not the unemployment rate will recover is dependent upon whether or not businesses decide to open back up or not. Some may end up closing for good due to economic issues as a result of the pandemic. Many businesses that have not been allowed to open up such as hair salons may end up going out of business.

During the recession in 2010 in the United States, which was the highest unemployment rate in history, the rate of unemployment sat at 11.1%. San Diego County has lost over 100,000 jobs during that time, but now the unemployment rate is at an all-time high.

To give an overview of the rate of unemployment in the big California cities in June, San Diego sat at 13.9%, Los Angeles at 19.5%, Orange County at 13.7%, San Francisco at 12.5%, and more.