While the Bay Area managed to add jobs during September, the state as a whole suffered employment losses that marked the fourth consecutive month of setbacks in California, according to federal labor figures released Thursday.

The release of September employment data was delayed due to a protracted shutdown of numerous federal government operations from October through November. Until now, the most recent jobs report had covered August.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bay Area gained just 500 jobs in September.

As measured by changes in nonfarm payroll jobs and adjusted for seasonal volatility, the South Bay lost 700 jobs, the East Bay gained 700, and the San Francisco-San Mateo metro region added 300.

In the North Bay, Sonoma County added 200 jobs, Marin County gained 100, Napa County was unchanged, and Solano County lost 100.

California lost 4,500 jobs in September.

“The Bay Area and California remain in a downward job cycle,” said Steve Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. “The tariffs, deportations and associated uncertainty and fear are huge constraints to growth.”

A shaky tech industry and setbacks in the entertainment industry are partly to blame for a weak job market in the state, according to Michael Bernick, an employment attorney with law firm Duane Morris and a former director of the state Employment Development Department.These factors alone don’t fully account for an erosion in California’s job market, Bernick said.

“The greater part of the explanation lies in the costs and liabilities of hiring in California, costs and liabilities that are higher than other states,” Bernick said. “The recently completed state legislative session failed to address these costs and liabilities.”

From June through September, California lost a combined 24,600 jobs, according to this news organization’s compilation of federal statistics. The federal statewide and metro figures were listed as preliminary. The state EDD will release its figures on Friday.

At 5.6% in September, California now has the grim distinction of reporting the nation’s highest unemployment rate, a review of the statistics posted on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website shows. It was 5.5% in August.

The last time the statewide unemployment rate was higher was in November 2021 at 5.7%.

Despite job gains for the Bay Area in September, the modest upswing in employment arrived on the heels of four straight months of losses.

“We’re neither growing nor shrinking, but we’re keeping our head above water” in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a San Jose-based think tank. “That’s an achievement in an environment of uncertainty such as we’re in.”

From May through August, the Bay Area lost a cumulative 9,200 jobs, the federal database shows.

So far in 2025, the Bay Area has lost 22,900 jobs, the East Bay has shed 9,000, the San Francisco-San Mateo region has lost 6,600, and the South Bay has suffered a decline of 5,600 nonfarm payroll jobs.

Here is how California, the Bay Area, and this region’s three major metro areas fared over the one-year period that ended in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All the numbers measured nonfarm payroll jobs:

• California gained 61,800 jobs, a 0.3% increase.

• The Bay Area lost 9,000 jobs, down 0.2%.

• The South Bay lost 400 jobs, a 0.03% decrease.

• The East Bay shed 8,400 jobs, a 0.7% decline.

• The San Francisco-San Mateo metro area lost 2,600 jobs, a 0.2% drop.

“Many California and Bay Area businesses have simply put their hiring plans on pause until the economic and policy uncertainty diminishes,” said Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist for BMO Capital Markets.

California and all of the Bay Area metros compared very poorly to the nation.

During the same one-year period that ended in September, the U.S. produced a 0.9% increase in its nonfarm payroll job totals, three times more quickly than California’s.

The tech industry’s uncertain state has undermined the overall Bay Area job market, said Hancock and Levy. Artificial intelligence is booming and attracting vast amounts of venture capital financing.

While AI has prodded tech companies to shave jobs in less-promising units, it has yet to produce huge numbers of new jobs, Levy noted.

“Although AI leases are surging, any actual job growth is a ways off,” Levy said.

The tech industry is deliberately attempting to rein in hiring, Hancock stated.

“Silicon Valley’s swashbuckling ways are on an indefinite hold,” Hancock said. “Austerity and efficiency are the new watchwords. Tech companies are trying to stay lean so they can pivot while sorting out the implications of artificial intelligence.”

The Bay Area job market could be in better shape next year, according to Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. Neither a boom nor a severe downturn are in the works, he said.

“Employers are entering 2026 with more certainty on the future economic trajectory than they had for much of 2025, when job losses outweighed new hires in the region,” Bellisario said. “But we don’t see any near-term impetus for a consistent wave of job growth or a regional recession.”