San Diego jobless rate drops for 5th straight month. Here's who's hiring
San Diego County’s unemployment rate fell for a fifth straight month in April, led by local government and tourism hiring.
The region's unemployment rate was 4.1%, state labor officials said Friday, down from 4.3% in March. That was lower than the California average of 5% and slightly higher than the nationwide average of 4%.
Hiring in April was led by new local government jobs, which include education, with 2,000 new positions. Close behind was tourism, with 1,900 new jobs, and private education and health services (nursing, social assistance, private schools and universities), with 1,700.
There were more than 7,000 new jobs added in April, but three categories lost positions: manufacturing, down by 100; financial activities (real estate, insurance, investments), also down by 100; and information (telecommunications, newspapers, publishing), down by 200.
The other sectors to add positions were professional and business services, with 700; construction, with 400; trade, transportation and utilities (mainly retail), also with 400; and other services (laundry, maintenance, religious) with 500.
When adjusted for seasonal swings, San Diego County's unemployment rate in April was 4.5%, according to Beacon Economics. That compares to the 4.3% U.S. average jobless rate and 5.3% in California.
Alan Gin, economist at the University of San Diego, said there are reasons to look at new hiring data cautiously: Much of the growth is from low-paying jobs, annual job growth is lackluster and the lower unemployment rate is affected by a shrinking labor force.
The region's labor force - adults who either have a job or are actively looking for one - was 1,654,800 in April. That was down from a high of 1,680,200 in March 2025.
Gin said a loss of more than 25,000 workers can’t be attributed to just retirements, and could point to people leaving the region for lower-cost metro areas. He said a small workforce could make it appear like there are fewer people out of work when they just left San Diego County altogether.
Who’s hiring?
San Diego’s tech giant Qualcomm led new job advertisements in April, with 164 new postings, according to state data that aggregates job postings during the month.
Other employers seeking new workers were General Atomics, with 57 new job ads; Scripps Health, with 55; and Northrop Grumman, also with 55.
The profession with the most open job ads was retail salespersons, with 1,616. It was followed by registered nurses, with 1,376 ads; supervisors of retail sales workers, with 1,115; and health and personal care aids, with 1,114.
San Diego had the most open job postings, with 28,330. It was followed by Carlsbad (3,006), Chula Vista (1,991), Oceanside (1,936), Escondido (1,911), El Cajon (1,715), Poway (1,471), San Marcos (1,246) and Vista (1,111).
The big picture
Over the past 12 months, San Diego County has added 10,000 jobs - an improvement from the same time last year but down from the pandemic recovery years. In April 2025, the region added 8,800 jobs; 14,000 were added in 2024 and 43,400 in 2023.
“It’s not declining, but it’s not great,” Gin said of job growth. “Ten thousand jobs is not a big number. We would be better off in the 20,000 to 25,000 range annually.”
The largest gainer in the past year was private education and health services, with 16,400 new jobs. Growth in the sector came from social assistance, nursing, residential care facilities and ambulatory care services.
It was followed by leisure and hospitality (hotels, casinos, bars and restaurants) with 6,000 jobs; other services with 2,100 new positions; and professional and business services with 1,400.
Every other sector was down on an annual basis. Government saw the biggest drop, with a loss of 7,900 jobs due to federal cuts from the Trump administration.
Other losers were construction, down by 3,300; manufacturing, down by 1,500; information, down by 1,200; trade, transportation and utilities, down by 1,000; and financial activities, also down by 1,000.
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 4.1%.
The unemployment rate was 5.2% in Los Angeles County, 3.7% in Orange County, 3.5% in San Francisco County, 3.7% in Santa Clara County, 6.2% in Santa Cruz County and 4.9% in Riverside County.
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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 1:46 PM.