Reopened — but recovered? What Fresno jobs look like in industries hit hardest by COVID
When the first confirmed cases of coronavirus struck Fresno County and the central San Joaquin Valley 15 months ago, it triggered a series of precautionary health orders — including wholesale closures of some types of businesses — to stem the spread of the contagion.
Specialty retailers, businesses catering to arts, entertainment and recreation, restaurants and bars found themselves deemed “non-essential” in the face of the pandemic.
Some were closed, others forced to modify their operations. Travel was seriously limited, taking a toll on hotels, motels and other traveler accommodations.
The overall result was a significant cut in employment in a scaled-back economy – more than 32,000 private-sector jobs evaporated between the end of 2019, prior to the pandemic, and mid-2020.
With Tuesday’s reopening of the California economy and the lifting of capacity restrictions on most businesses, there is anticipation for the number of jobs in particularly hard-hit sectors, including retail, restaurants, recreation and travel accommodations, to continue recovering.
The retail industry, one of the largest employment sectors in Fresno County, saw the number of jobs take a 12% dive between the first and second quarters of 2020, as COVID-19 measures were put in place. Employment in the first quarter was already down by about 2,000 workers as part of a normal yearly pattern as retailers let go of seasonal employees after the 2019 holiday shopping season.
The Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor and the California Employment Development Department shows that employment dipped in Fresno County from just over 38,000 retail workers in the first quarter of 2020 to fewer than 34,000 in the second quarter.
But by the end of 2020 – the latest data released this month by the federal and state agencies – retailers had more than made up for the losses, reaching almost 39,000 workers in the fourth quarter.
The business census data makes no distinction between part-time and full-time employment.
Restaurants and bars
Work in Fresno County’s restaurant industry, ranging from fine dining to fast casual to fast-food, fell from more than 27,000 before the pandemic to just over 20,000 by mid-year – a loss of about 7,000 jobs, or 25% of the sector’s workforce. In the second half of the year, as some restaurants were permitted to resume outdoor dining in addition to delivery or carry-out service, the number of employees began to rebound somewhat, approaching 24,000 workers by the fourth quarter of 2020.
Bars, nightclubs and other alcohol-serving establishments that didn’t have the capability to serve meals as a central part of their business were also hammered during the year — first by an initial closure in the spring of 2020, then a short reopening before an extended closure from last summer until just two months ago, when they were allowed to resume outdoor service only.
At the close of 2019, there were 48 drinking establishments that collectively employed almost 450 workers. In the post-holiday months in the first quarter of 2020, employment had settled at about 420 workers. The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent closure orders knocked the workforce down to fewer than 160 employees – a drop of almost 63% across the sector. It continued to slump in the third quarter to fewer than 100 workers, before beginning a slow recovery to just over 180 employees in the fourth quarter.
Entertainment, recreation and travel
Much of the Fresno County arts, entertainment and recreation scene was shuttered during the second, third and fourth quarters of 2020. While not necessarily a powerhouse of jobs – with seasonal swings peaking at about 4,100 jobs in the summer of 2019, for example – it’s a sprawling sector that includes performing arts, spectator sports, movie theaters, independent artists, museums and parks, zoos, amusement parks, arcades and gambling facilities.
Jobs in the sector took a dive of more than 46% between the first and second quarters of 2020 as the pandemic tightened its grip on the Valley, dipping to about 1,800 by mid-2020 and falling a little further to less than 1,700 in the third quarter. By the end of the year, a very slight recovery was evident, with the number of jobs climbing to almost 2,000.
The hotel/motel industry, limited by restrictions on travel through much of 2020, employed about 2,300 people countywide before the pandemic. By the second quarter of the year, jobs had fallen by more than 42%, to about 1,300 workers. Employment was slow to recover in the third and fourth quarters, ending the year at about 1,600 jobs.
Employment fell, but wages rose
As each of these sectors saw the number of jobs shrink from the pandemic, the average weekly wage for workers who managed to keep their jobs increased by the end of 2020.
At the start of 2020, the average weekly pay for a retail worker was reported at just under $630 per week, and climbed in each of the three following quarters of the year, reaching just over $730 per week in the fourth quarter.
Among restaurant workers, the average weekly wage in the first quarter of 2020 was $382; after a slight dip in the second quarter, the average rose to $421 in the fourth quarter, higher than any point of the previous three years.
This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
