China News Service, July 8. According to the US "World Journal" report, the "San Francisco Chronicle" said that the unemployment rate in San Francisco in the United States hit a record low in May, falling to 1.9%.

Some economists said that this figure does not indicate that San Francisco's economy has fully recovered from the epidemic.

People in the Chinatown community in San Francisco said that the data does not represent the actual situation. The reality is that businesses and residents in Chinatown are still struggling with the epidemic, and the economy has not recovered.

  San Francisco’s workforce is now 566,800, down from 587,300 in February 2020, when the unemployment rate was 2.2%.

By April 2020, due to the epidemic, most businesses were closed for epidemic prevention, and the unemployment rate at that time had soared to 12%.

Census data shows that from July 2020 to July 2021, San Francisco lost 54,813 people, accounting for 6.3% of the city's total population.

Although some of the population has returned, apartment rents in San Francisco are still below their pre-pandemic levels, in stark contrast to other big cities.

  Shao Qiqian, president of the Chinatown Business Association of San Francisco, said that the data does not reflect the real San Francisco. Many small businesses or individuals in Chinatown before faced closure, job transfer, and forced retirement.

More people are employed in the "data", but in fact they are still unemployed, just the rhetoric of stopping the payment of unemployment benefits.

Faced with the current difficult situation, it is a great challenge for both young and old.

It is not a favorable time for young people to start a business or innovate.

Many Chinatown seniors are living off their savings or their children, but others have been forced to leave the United States and leave San Francisco.

  Shao Qiqian said that according to visual judgment, 15% of the merchants have left Chinatown since the epidemic, and many storefronts have been closed.

From the data point of view, with the opening of business and tourism in San Francisco, the employment rate of restaurants and hotels has increased, but in fact, only more than half of the employment has recovered compared to before, and many of them once worked in restaurants, hotels, and tourism industries. Workers have all switched to other industries, and have also changed from full-time to part-time.

For Chinatown, there are still many unresolved challenges such as rising rents and prices.

  "A lot of the workforce has left and hasn't come back," said Ted Egan, chief economist in San Francisco.

He believes that the unemployment rate will not fall further in the future.

Massive tech layoffs have fueled fears of a recession in the industry, and as interest rates rise, many economists speculate a recession is on the horizon.

  Egan said the unemployment rate is a very clear sign that the economy is not in a recession right now and that the tech giants in the Bay Area are still hiring and expanding.

(Li Yi)