This is Sidekick's data series, which covers the raw numbers behind life in Humboldt County: jobs, pay, sales and housing. Each article is built from official public statistics. We report what the numbers show without editorializing: just the numbers, as the agencies report them.
Total payroll in Humboldt County came to $749.8 million in January–March 2026, +$30.8 million (+4.3%) from a year earlier. These are current dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
In context
Compared with a year earlier, the same figure changed +3.5% for California as a whole and +4.1% nationally.
How we calculated this
Changes compare a period with the same period a year earlier.Show the formula
change = value(this period) − value(same period last year); % change = change ÷ value(same period last year) × 100
County figures are shown next to California and the United States for the same period, where the source publishes them.Show the formula
the same measure for California and the United States in the same period; where a change is shown for them, the same change formula
A change of less than 0.5% either way from a year earlier is reported as little changed.Show the formula
Little changed = 0.5
These figures come from employers' reports to the state's unemployment insurance program, which leave out the self-employed, most religious organizations and uniformed military. County totals include employers whose own figures the state keeps confidential.
Total payroll is every wage and bonus paid in the quarter, in current dollars, not adjusted for inflation; it grows with the number of jobs as well as with pay.
Source: California EDD, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, data released 2026-10-01.
