Labor Force and Unemployment Rate for Cities and Census Designated Places

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The Labor Force and Unemployment Rate for Cities and Census Designated Places (CDPs) are updated monthly. Data for Cities and CDPs is limited to not seasonally adjusted labor force and unemployment rates. Estimates of employment by industry are not available for Cities and CDPs. Please see the about the data section for additional information about how the data is produced and possible data limitations. The last data released was for October 2024, for a complete schedule of future releases, please visit our Data Release Schedule.

Data for All County Sub-Areas

Cities and Census Designated Places by Individual County

About the Data

Each month the Employment Development Department, Labor Market Information Division releases unemployment rates and employment by industry data for California and sub–state areas. Visit the complete release schedule for exact dates.

For the state, we release two series of data:

  • Seasonally – adjusted
  • Not seasonally - adjusted

The greatest detail is provided for the “not seasonally-adjusted” series. These are the data used to compare the California statewide data with other geographic areas in the state.

Methodology and Data Limitations

A Census Designated Place (CDP) is an unincorporated area designated by the US Census Bureau for the decennial census. The CDPs shown in these reports were designated for the 2010 census. As with the cities, no boundary or census ratio changes have been made for population expansion, annexation or incorporation. For more information, see the Census Bureau's 2010 Geographic Terms and Concepts.

Only not seasonally-adjusted labor force (unemployment rates) data are developed for cities and CDPs. Estimates of employment by industry are not available.

Monthly estimates of employment and unemployment for cities and Census Designated Places are calculated by using the share of county-level employment and unemployment in the area at the time of the most current five-year American Community Survey (ACS) estimates, which are updated annually. The cities employment and unemployment estimates are then added to determine the total labor force and unemployment rate.

This method assumes that the rates of change in employment and unemployment are exactly the same in each sub-county area as at the county level (the same process is used for unemployment). If this assumption is not true for a specific sub-county area, then the estimates for that area may not be representative of the current economic conditions. Since this assumption is untested, caution should be employed when using these data.

Additional Definitions

Data for Other Geographic Areas