EconoMeter: Was 2010 the bottom?

Roger Showley, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

Sunday, December 26, 2010

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San Diego employment
Kelly Cunningham, National University System
After 106,800 job losses recorded the previous two years (8.1 percent decline), the goods news for San Diego in 2010 was net losses ended and employment slowly began rising. About 8,000 jobs are estimated to have been added over the year (0.5 percent gain), not quite enough to keep up with natural labor gains.
Consequently San Diego’s unemployment rate remained around 10.5 percent for the year, the highest annual rate reported in at least 40 years (and probably much farther back as current employment data only goes to 1970). This is significantly better than California’s overall 12.5 percent unemployment, but higher than the rest of the nation at 9.7 percent.
Job sectors posting the most growth during 2010 in San Diego were health care, private education and the federal government -- including civilian positions connected to the Defense Department. Active-duty military and related spending significantly bolstered local employment, that otherwise would have suffered much greater setbacks.