San Diego employment growth bounced back last month, according to California’s Employment Development Department. As usual, however, the housing boom beneficiary sectors put a damper on things. Employment in the construction and financial sectors were down again down from last year, as the accompanying charts show. But the previously beaten-down retail sales industry actually went positive for the first time in a while, growing by 100 jobs since September 2006 (hey, it’s something).
Employment grew at a reasonably brisk 1.9 percent pace outside of the housing beneficiary industries. The big winners, as seen below, were leisure and hospitality, government, professional services, and education and health.
Overall, the region added 11,800 jobs in the year leading to September 2007, an increase of .9 percent.
Last month’s job data writeup contains a graph of San Diego’s overall employment composition along with some thoughts on the just how accurate these statistics are, if that’s your cup of tea.
— RICH TOSCANO