SAN DIEGO—Citing data from the state employment department, Manpower says the economic outlook for San Diego is improving.
The California Employment Development Department released statewide county employment data today for the August 2015 period. This month's data shows that despite a weak August US jobs report released earlier this month, San Diego continued to show signs of a strong economy driven by its key sectors.
“San Diego continues to rise above the uncertainties facing many regions around the country,” noted Phil Blair, Manpower San Diego's executive officer. “Earlier this month, we saw a weak national jobs report, but San Diego is bucking the trend and exceeding growth expectations.”
The unemployment rate fell back to 5.1% in August, Manpower says. That rate is 1.5 points lower than the previous year and 0.3 points lower than the previous month. The California and U.S. average rates also fell to 6.1 and 5.2%, respectively, but San Diego remained lower than the state and national averages.
San Diego's rate fell both due to a drop in persons who identified as unemployed, as well as a small seasonal drop in the labor force. More importantly though, the labor force is up by 25,900 people from August 2014 and unemployment is down 21,500 people over that same period—all amid solid and steady employment growth.
The report notes that seasonal factors impact employment numbers in the summer:
We should note that non-seasonally adjusted employment data for the summer months is almost always filled with wild swings in the labor force and in turn the unemployment rate. This is largely due to thousands high school and college students entering the labor force in May and June, then leaving again in August and September as they return to school. Therefore, summer swings from month-to-month should be taken with a grain of salt, while the focus should instead be on how the labor force is performing differently from the year prior.
The report goes on the say that the regions overall economy continued to steadily grow above three percent, which we have not seen sustained since 2012. San Diego's total non-farm employment grew by 3.1% year-over-year, adding 42,400 jobs from August 2014 to August 2015.
We have seen three percent growth or greater every month in 2015, other than April where we saw 2.9 percent growth. San Diego's growth rate was again much higher than the 2.1% national rate. The San Diego region is now expected to average 3.1% annual growth in 2015, compared to only 2.3% in 2014.
Manpower started with a single office as a temporary staffing service, and continues to provide temporary staffing services along with permanent placement, workforce programs and workforce insight and innovation. Headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, the firm has locations around the world.
The full report from Manpower is available here.
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David Phillips
David Phillips is a Chicago-based freelance writer and consultant with more than 20 years experience in business and community news. He also has extensive reporting experience in the food manufacturing industry for national trade publications.
