San Diego\u2019s unemployment rate hit a level in July not seen since 2021 with losses in construction and professional services, as well as sluggish growth in other sectors.<\/p>\n
The region\u2019s unemployment rate was 5.2%, state labor officials said Friday, up from 4.9% the previous month. It marks the highest unemployment rate in San Diego County since September 2021.<\/p>\n
San Diego isn\u2019t alone in rising jobless numbers, with the nationwide rate up in July to 4.6%, and in California to 6.1%. National job numbers were bad enough that President Donald Trump fired the head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, worrying experts<\/a>. California\u2019s Employment Development Department does use federal data but also conducts its own surveys and analysis.<\/p>\n A large part of San Diego\u2019s July report can be chalked up to seasonality, with almost all job losses \u2014 17,200 \u2014 to teachers off for summer break. Still, other sectors were down from June to July: Construction shed 400 positions, and there were 900 job cuts in professional and business services, which includes work in legal, scientific, waste management and architectural fields.<\/p>\n When adjusted for seasonality, the San Diego County unemployment rate was closer to 4.8%, said Daniel Enemark, chief economist at the San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center. That compares with the 4.2% U.S. average<\/a> and 5.5% in California.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe seasonally adjusted rate has increased every month since March,\u201d Enemark said. \u201cJune and July usually see unemployment increase in San Diego, but this June was the worst surge on record, and this July was worse than average as well.\u201d<\/p>\n One sector that has clearly seen a shift is professional and business services, shedding 6,800 jobs, the most of any category, over the 12 months. Most of the losses have been in tech and biotech.<\/p>\n Kevin Carroll, executive director of technology industry trade group Tech San Diego, said there has been a drastic slowdown in hiring. He said part of the loss can be attributed to jobs, like software development, where some of the work can be done by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a much tougher environment for a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) grad to find a position than it was 12 months ago,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cSome of that is due to AI. Entry-level jobs for software development are increasingly difficult to secure for new graduates.\u201d<\/p>\n San Diego County\u2019s labor force \u2014 adults who either have a job or are actively looking for one \u2014 was 1.67 million in July, up 1% in a year. That\u2019s not a big change and points to the possibility of people leaving the region in the past few months. For example, San Diego\u2019s labor force hit a high of 1.69 million adults in March.<\/p>\n