SAN DIEGO UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DROPS IN SEPTEMBER
Educators return to work while more than 3,000 jobs were lost in other industries
San Diego County’s unemployment rate dropped last month as teachers went back to school, but other industries still shed jobs.
The region’s jobless rate was 4 percent in September, down from 4.3 percent the previous month, state labor officials said Friday. San Diego’s rate was higher than the 3.6 national average but lower than the 4.9 percent average in California.
As expected for this time of year, teachers going back to work made a big difference in the overall job picture. There were 8,000 education jobs added from August to September, which outweighed losses in nearly every other sector, except construction, which added 1,100 jobs, and retail, which was flat month-over-month.
Professional and business services — a catch-all category with the region’s most jobs, at 281,600 — lost 3,600 positions. Every type of job in the category lost jobs, including work in architectural (down 2.9 percent), waste management (down 2.1 percent), scientific research (down 1.7 percent), and legal (down 0.7 percent).
This was one of the fastest growing sectors during the last decade and might now just be flattening out after a lot of hiring, said Daniel Enemark, chief economist at the San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center.
Other categories to lose jobs were manufacturing, down by 1,100; leisure and hospitality (hotels, gambling, restaurants), down by 600; and three categories that all lost 400 jobs each: information (broadcasting, telecommunications, newspapers, publishing industry), financial activities (real estate, insurance, investments) and private education and health services (nursing, social assistance).
One reason the unemployment rate might look worse is a lot more people recently joined the workforce.
The county’s labor force — adults who either have a job or are actively looking for one — continues to be steady after big drops dur
ing the pandemic. It was 1.6 million people in September, up 11,700 in a month, or 4,500 people in a year. Enemark said that is the biggest monthly growth for a September in records going back to 1990.
He said San Diego County’s unemployment rate was closer to 4.1 percent when adjusted for seasonal swings. That compares to the seasonally adjusted U.S. average of 3.8 percent and 4.7 percent in California.
Ray Major, chief economist at the San Diego Association of Governments, said the job losses last month were not extreme and, for the most part, the job market is still healthy.
“We continue to have companies that are hiring,” he said. “From an employment perspective, we are still looking reasonably strong.”
Major argued that sectors to watch are tourism and retail because they are bigger hints at a changing economy.
“If we go into a recession, or the economy starts to slow down, where we will see the job losses are in retail and tourism,” he said. “That is related to disposable income and consumer spending.”
There are still concerns for the future with San Diego’s cost of living increasing, Major said. That could impact the size of the workforce if people are moving away or not accepting jobs here. U.S. News and World Report announced this week that America’s Finest City was the most expensive place to live in the country, based on rents, home prices, salaries and other factors.
On an annual basis, the fastest-growing industry was leisure and hospitality, which added 11,700 jobs. It was followed by private education and health services, up by 9,500 jobs; general services (laundry, maintenance, religious), up 4,400; government, up by 2,900; financial activities, up 2,300 jobs; retail, up 1,700; and construction, up by 1,700 jobs.
Professional and business services were down by 4,400 jobs, information was down by 500 jobs and manufacturing was down by 400 jobs.
State officials do not seasonally adjust jobless rates for individual counties. Compared with other parts of California, San Diego County was about middle-of-the-pack with its rate of 4 percent.
The rate was 5.8 percent in Los Angeles County, 3.9 percent in Orange County, 3.6 percent in San Francisco County, 3.9 percent in Santa Clara County, 5.1 percent in Santa Cruz County and 5.4 percent in Riverside County.