Reported unemployment in Burbank continued to fall in September, according to preliminary figures, as the statistics did for Los Angeles County. But four out of 25 in the Burbank labor force remain unemployed.
About 9,300 Burbank workers, or 16.1% of the labor force, were unemployed in September, according to recently released statistics by the California Employment Development Department. It was an improvement from August’s preliminary figure of 18.1% or 10,500 unemployed workers, but still by the far the highest for city-level records, which only stretch back as far as 2010.
The Pew Research Center noted that the United States, grappling with a global pandemic, has seen the highest unemployment levels of the post-World War II era this year, and possibly since the Great Depression.
The California employment rate dropped to an estimated 10.8% in September, compared to 11.2% in August. Roughly 1.3 million more Californians are unemployed in September 2020 than in September 2019.
Glendale and Pasadena have shown similar declines in unemployment since June, though Burbank appears to have a slightly higher rate than Glendale’s 15.8%. Pasadena’s unemployment rate for September was estimated at 12.1%, lower than even L.A. County’s, which slipped under Glendale’s and Burbank’s at 15.1%.
The statistics, as well as recently released unemployment estimates by industry, are not seasonally adjusted, meaning they do not account for regular job fluctuations, such as when retail stores hire more employees during the winter holiday season.
Employment in L.A. County’s motion picture industry, a major player in the Burbank economy, in September was about 28.4% lower compared to the same month last year. The employment rate for the industry further dropped a little under 1% from August, though it had risen some since July.
Independent artists, writers and performers saw a slight increase in September employment compared to the previous month — about 2.6% — but still took a major hit during the pandemic.
