May Jobs

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The employment sectors that benefited from our erstwhile housing boom, while having experienced seasonal growth in recent months, continue to shed jobs based on a year-over-year comparison. Between May 2006 and May 2007, the construction industry lost 6,900 jobs, retail lost 1,800 jobs, and finance and real estate gave up 3,200 jobs. The three sectors shed 11,900 jobs between them.

Meanwhile, the rest of the economy slowed its rate of expansion. Up until May, year-over-year employment growth outside the housing beneficiary sectors had been running at about 20,000 jobs. May, however, saw the addition of only 16,100 jobs from the prior year. This was still more than enough to make up for the housing-related losses, but the margin was quite a bit narrower than in recent months.

In total, the San Diego economy added 4,200 jobs — an increase of just 0.3 percent from last May.

I will follow up soon with a more detailed look at what’s going on in San Diego’s various employment sectors.

— RICH TOSCANO