Tech Layoffs and Higher Than Average Unemployment: A Close Look at the Bay Area’s Job Market

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

California now has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.5%. While the Bay Area’s rate is a bit lower than the state’s, it is still higher than the national average, and continued tech company layoffs and threats to jobs from AI, have workers worried. We look at the shifting Bay Area labor market. Where are jobs disappearing and what could replace them? Will AI be a net boom or loss for local employment? If you’re in the market we want to hear about it. How is the Bay Area labor landscape looking to you? Guests: Jeff Bellisario, executive director, Bay Area Council Economic Institute Aki Ito, chief correspondent, Business Insider coverings the tech industry and workplace issues Enrico Moretti, professor of economics, UC Berkeley; author, "The New Geography of Jobs" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:41.3	From KQED.
0:43.9	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:57.0	California now has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.5%.
1:04.0	Our rate here is a bit lower than the state as a whole, but it's higher than the national average.
1:09.0	The question is, why? Is it just continuing
1:12.6	tech and biotech layoffs? Is it AI or is it something else entirely? We're
1:18.3	convening a panel of experts but we want to hear from our other experts. That's you
1:23.2	if you're in the job market either looking to get hired or hiring. It's all coming up next right after this news.
	...

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