San Diego County’s job growth slowed considerably in 2025, with 62% fewer jobs than the year before.
The county added 4,700 jobs last year, said state labor data released Friday and seasonally adjusted by Beacon Economics. It was the worst year for job growth, not counting the 2020 pandemic, in 15 years of data.
The creation of fewer than 5,000 new jobs is in stark contrast to 2024, when 12,300 jobs were created. The hardest-hit industries last year were the high-paying professional and business services sector (which includes work in tech and biotech), construction and manufacturing.
The region’s unemployment rate was 4.7% in December, said seasonally adjusted numbers from Beacon Economics, down from a revised 4.8% the previous month. That compares to 5.5% in California and 4.4% in the U.S.
The Friday data release gives local economists the first look at how San Diego County’s economy fared last year, which was marked by new policies from the Trump administration from tariffs to efforts to grow manufacturing.
The hardest hit industry was professional and business services, down by 6,200 positions. Nearly a third of all job losses in the sector were in scientific research and development services. San Diego’s biomedical industry was hit by federal funding cuts and other head winds. The region wasn’t alone: The journal Nature estimated more than 7,800 grants from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Science Foundation were disrupted in 2025 — and 2,600 of those that were not reinstated total a loss of almost $1.4 billion.
Kelly Cunningham, of the San Diego Institute for Economic Research, said jobs in that sector are economic drivers for the region. In general, the idea is higher paid workers have the funds to pay for additions on their houses, eat at fancy restaurants and buy goods in stores.
“These are critical jobs for (San Diego’s) economic health,” he said. “It filters into construction, retail, other industries.”
San Diego County’s job growth follows a topsy-turvy recovery after the pandemic. In the nine years before the pandemic, the county was averaging about 30,000 new jobs annually. In 2020, the region lost 137,000 jobs because of lockdowns and other pandemic-related factors. In 2021, a large portion of jobs returned — 124,200 — but job growth slowed after: 47,400 jobs added in 2022, 6,700 in 2023 and 12,300 in 2024.
The trend mirrors what is occurring nationally. The U.S. economy gained just 584,000 jobs in 2025, sharply lower than the more than 2 million jobs added in 2024. It’s the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020. Outside of recessions, it’s the smallest annual increase since 2003, The Associated Press reported.
Local industries with big losses last year were construction, down by 3,700 jobs, and manufacturing, down by 2,700. Apartment construction is down this year compared to last year, which may be partially to blame. Manufacturing seems to fall every year, no matter what president is in power, as American businesses find it much cheaper to manufacture overseas.
Other job losses were in financial activities (real estate, insurance, investments), with 2,300 jobs lost; trade, transportation and utilities (mostly retail), down 1,400; and information (telecommunications, newspapers, publishing industry), down by 900.
The big winner was private education and health services, adding 15,100 jobs annually. The sector includes nursing, social assistance, private schools and universities. Three other categories added jobs: government (mainly education), up by 4,100; leisure and hospitality (tourism) with 2,100; and other services (laundry, maintenance, religious) with 1,400.
From November to December, the trade, transportation and utilities sector (mostly retail) was the big winner with 2,100 jobs added. It was followed by professional and business services, adding 1,100, and government (mainly education), adding 1,000.
Daniel Enemark, chief economist of the San Diego Regional Policy and Innovation Center, noted the hard-hit professional and business services sector added jobs in October, November and December.
“It was a welcome reprieve from months of steady decline,” he said.
The position with the most job openings in December in San Diego County was retail salespersons with 1,333 ads, according to state data that aggregates job postings during the month. It was followed by registered nurses, with 1,200 ads, home health and personal care aides with 1,062 and software developers with 816.
Employers with the most job ads were Qualcomm, UC San Diego, Intuit, General Atomics, Apple and Scripps Health.
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 4.4%.
The unemployment rate was 5% in Los Angeles County, 3.9% in Orange County, 3.8% in San Francisco County, 4% in Santa Clara County, 6.4% in Santa Cruz County and 5.2% in Riverside County.