The Bay Area bounced back in April from prior job losses, adding thousands of positions in an upswing that was powered by a surge in South Bay hiring.

While the Bay Area gained 4,200 jobs last month, overall, California added 17,700 positions, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday. All numbers were adjusted for seasonal variations.

“The impacts of tariff and immigration policies will come in the next few months, though the magnitude of pain is still uncertain,” said Steve Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. “The Bay Area job gains in April are a welcome respite from recent job losses but do not mean job growth is here to stay.”

Scott Anderson, chief economist with BMO Capital Markets, also issued a warning about what’s ahead.

“One month of better job numbers could be a one-off event that easily gets reversed or revised away in the months ahead,” Anderson said. “The Bay Area labor market still appears to be on shaky ground, and the longer-term job trend remains negative.”

Fueling the Bay Area upswing in hiring, the South Bay added 2,900 jobs in April. The East Bay gained 800, while the San Francisco-San Mateo area lost 100 jobs, the employment report showed.

The gains in April snapped a three-month losing streak for the Bay Area and California — both lost jobs in January, February and March.

“The one-month net job gain in the Bay Area provides some hope all is not lost,” Anderson said. “The region hasn’t yet fallen into outright recession. But it’s also too early to sound the all clear.”

Despite the one-month improvement, job markets in the state and Bay Area continue to wobble in 2025. The Bay Area lost 14,700 jobs and California overall saw 32,300 positions eliminated this year.

Despite the upswing in April, California remains one of the nation’s weakest job markets, in a ranking among the 50 states.

“It’s difficult to see how California will be able to break out of its slow-growth cycle when there has been virtually no increase in housing production,” Justin Niakamal, Beacon Economics research manager, said in comments the company released regarding the jobs report.

The statewide unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.3% in April, the EDD reported. Still, it is far higher than the record-low 3.8% the state achieved in August 2022.

Among the key employers in the region, the tech industry added 100 jobs during April. This increase was due almost solely to a tech boom in the South Bay.

The South Bay gained 1,600 tech jobs in April, the East Bay lost 1,200 and the San Francisco-San Mateo region shed 400, according to industry estimates provided by Beacon Economics that it derived from the EDD’s seasonally adjusted numbers. The North Bay added 100 tech jobs last month.

The Bay Area’s hotel and restaurant sector was particularly weak in April, Beacon estimated.

Restaurants and hotels in the region chopped a net total of 2,000 jobs last month. Hotel and restaurant employers shed a net 1,000 jobs in the East Bay, 700 in the San Francisco-San Mateo region and 400 in the East Bay.

The health care sector also was a major contributor to the Bay Area’s gains.

The region added 2,900 health care jobs in April, Beacon estimated. This upswing was led primarily by an increase of 1,300 tech jobs in the East Bay, 500 in the South Bay and 400 in the San Francisco-San Mateo metro area.

“Health care is emerging as a significant driver in our region, which makes sense given our aging population,” said Russell Hancock, president of San Jose-based think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley. “We’re also seeing growth around community infrastructure.”

The tech industry has been quite a different story, Hancock said, as hiring isn’t nearly as reliable in the Bay Area as it was a year or two ago.

“Tech is doing a Jekyll and Hyde impersonation,” Hancock said.

For now, a severe nosedive for the Bay Area economy doesn’t appear to be in the works.

“At least through mid-April, employment in our state and region across a range of sectors has held up,” said Michael Bernick, an employment attorney with law firm Duane Morris and a former director of the state EDD. “The bottom has not dropped out of the job market, as widely predicted.”