San Diego County job losses rose to start the year, led by the loss of temporary retail and tourism jobs for the holiday season.
The region’s unemployment rate was 4.7%, state labor officials said Friday, up from a revised 4.4% in December. It is typical to see job losses after the holiday season, but the data showed job cuts across nearly every sector.
Work in the trade, transportation and utilities sector was down by 7,900 jobs from December to January, including retail work at general merchandise and big-box stores. It also includes warehouse jobs, which had substantial losses.
Other job cuts were in leisure and hospitality (hotels, casinos, bars and restaurants), down by 3,100 positions; government (state education and federal government), down by 2,800; financial activities (real estate, insurance, investments), down by 1,000; construction, down by 800; and manufacturing down by 700.
Only two sectors added jobs: Private education and health services (nursing, social assistance, private schools and universities) with 600, and the catch-all other services industry, also with 600, and includes laundry, maintenance and religious work.
“The labor market in San Diego is not disastrous but it’s not really strong either,” said Alan Gin, economist at the University of San Diego. “We didn’t add a lot of jobs year-over-year, but didn’t lose a lot either.”
On an annual basis, the county added 10,900 jobs. That’s up from 3,000 at the same time last year, but down from 20,600 in January 2024.
San Diego’s unemployment rate of 4.7% was lower than the 5.5% rate in California and tied with the nationwide rate of 4.7%. The data was delayed because of last year’s federal government shutdown.
More recent data shows somes sign of improvement. In February, the City of San Diego had the most new monthly job postings, 1,836, of any city in California, said state data that aggregates job postings during the month. It was followed by Los Angeles with 1,624 job ads and 1,076 in San Francisco.
Companies with the most job ads throughout San Diego County were Qualcomm, with 672; UC San Diego with 642; General Atomics with 542; Apple with 503 and Scripps Health with 459. All five companies had increased the number of job ads from the previous month.
The most in-demand local job was retail salespersons (1,392 job ads), followed by home health and personal care aides (1,315 ads), registered nurses (1,297 ads) and software developers (1,011 ads).
Broken down by San Diego County cities, San Diego had the most open job ads with 25,874, followed by Carlsbad (3,013), Chula Vista (1,994), Oceanside (1,908), Escondido (1,787), El Cajon (1,579), Poway (1,191), San Marcos (1,176), Vista (1,046) and Encinitas (893).
In addition to possible brighter news ahead locally, national unemployment numbers for March were also released Friday and showed a gain of 178,000 jobs. It was higher than expected and dropped the unemployment rate to 4.3%.
When adjusted for seasonal swings, San Diego County’s unemployment rate in January was 4.4%, according to Daniel Enemark, chief economist of the San Diego-based Policy and Innovation Center. That compares to the January 4.3% U.S. average jobless rate and 5.4% in California.
Enemark said San Diego County’s unemployment rate, when adjusted for seasonality, showed the jobless rate had fallen three months in a row, down from a high of 4.9% in October.
“If San Diego follows national trends over the next two months, which it typically does within a small margin of variation,” he said, “we should see the unemployment rate remain fairly steady through the end of the first quarter.”
On an annual basis, the industry with the most job gains was private education and health services (nursing, social assistance, private schools and universities) with 16,600. It was followed by leisure and hospitality with 5,900; other services with 3,000, professional and business services (legal, scientific, waste management, architectural) with 700; and financial activities with 300.
The biggest job losses were in government, with 8,500. Most of the reductions came from federal government work, down by 16.4%, which includes defense and nondefense positions. It comes after major cuts by the Trump administration initiated last year that are finally showing up on job rolls. Many workers took buyout offers in early 2025 that kept them paid through various points in the second half of the year.
Other annual job losses were in construction, down by 2,600; trade, transportation and utilities, down 1,900, information (telecommunications, newspapers, publishing industry), down 1,400; and manufacturing, down by 1,200.
State officials do not seasonally adjust jobless rates for individual counties. Compared with other parts of California, San Diego County was in the middle of the pack with its unadjusted rate of 4.7%.
The unemployment rate was 5.5% in Los Angeles County, 4.1% in Orange County, also 4.1% in San Francisco County, 4.2% in Santa Clara County, 7.1% in Santa Cruz County and 5.5% in Riverside County.