November 2015 employment figures from the California Employment Development Department (EDD) paint a winter scene with jobs stuck in the frozen ground like boundary marker poles on the ski slopes at Lake Tahoe this year. (See Nov. 2015 summary here along with 6 mo. trends) Employment has leveled off and the labor force shrank on a month-over-month basis leaving the unemployment rate at 4%… but does it mean anything? Multiple counties have flat or declining employment and the total labor force has stalled, as well. The low unemployment rate is no longer a good thing if it means that people are leaving the Bay Area. Really… who wants to pay $3,500 for a one-bedroom apartment?

Sea Foam and Winter Surf, Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA