(Bloomberg) -- San Francisco's recovery of jobs that were lost during the height of the pandemic continues to lag that of the state and the nation, underscoring the hit remote work had on the tech hub.
San Francisco -- among the first U.S. areas to impose Covid lockdowns two years ago -- has regained 75.8% of jobs since April 2020, compared to 87.2% for California and 90.7% for the U.S., according to an analysis of February data released Thursday by Stephen Levy, director and senior economist of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto.
The city, with its heavy concentration of tech employers, is particularly vulnerable to remote work that has kept workers out of downtown offices. With Covid-19 cases ebbing, Mayor London Breed has been aggressively promoting a return to normalcy and drawing commitments from employers to bring staff back to reinvigorate San Francisco's economy.
San Francisco Girds for Blow of Office Workers Never Returning
There are encouraging signs. The area's 6.4% growth rate in jobs over the past year eclipsed that of the national 4.6% increase, according to Levy's analysis. And in mid-March, San Francisco weekly hotel occupancy topped 50% for the second time since the pandemic started, according to a report Thursday by the city's office of economic analysis.
San Francisco has a lot of ground to make up. The metropolitan area had the lowest share of office workers back at their desks among 10 U.S. cities, according to security company Kastle Systems.
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