Two business stories in last week’s issue provide a snapshot of the San Francisco’s economic health.
One, the Business Times released its annual Fastest-Growing Private Companies List. Two, buried in the “Week in Review,” was a single paragraph on the city’s highest unemployment rate in 19 years.
The fastest-growing companies were rated by revenue growth over three years. We applaud these entrepreneurs, especially in this market. But high revenue growth doesn’t necessary mean high job growth.
The top two companies — a fitness company and a health services vendor — together employ 145 workers.
Total number of unemployed San Franciscan workers: 10.1 percent or 45,600 workers.
But it’s worse.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics website provides a handy calculator available to any visitor which measures out-of-work employees not counted in the base unemployment rate.
When you count the underemployed and those who have stopped looking for work, the national unemployment rate, 9.8 percent, jumps to 17 percent — a 7 percent bump.
In other words, the unemployment rate in San Francisco is more like 17.1 percent or 77,000 workers out of a base city work force of 452,000. These are jobs lost primarily in the private sector, since San Francisco’s big government employers — city, county and state agencies — rarely lay off workers, but simply stop filling existing positions. In the private sector, the layoffs are real, and so is the disruption in the lives of those who receive a pink slip.
Meanwhile, back at City Hall, while the unemployment report was being released, the Board of Supervisors was debating protection of illegal entrants arrested for drug charges, and extending parking meter times to midnight in some neighborhoods. The mayor continued his campaign for next year’s governor’s race.
That’s cause for concern. Recent studies show that the high unemployment rate may be with us for years. Economists point to the job dynamics of previous recoveries that aren’t present now. Small and midsize businesses are struggling to obtain loans, higher-income households are cutting back, and the construction industry, which has helped lead us out of recessions before, is hamstrung.
It’s time that the city’s unemployed — nearly 1 out of every 5 workers — become the No. 1 issue on the list of the Board of Supervisors and mayor, or they, too, may join the ranks of the unemployed.
Arthur Bruzzone, a regular contributor, is president of Bruzzone Strategic Investments.
