San Diego added 1,200 jobs in December. These were the top industries

Retail hiring surged in December and brought down San Diego County’s jobless rate to one of its lowest points of the year.

The region’s unemployment rate was 4.3% to end the year and overall it added 1,200 jobs, state labor officials said Friday. That rate was the third lowest in 2024, behind 3.7% in May and 4.1% in April.

San Diego County’s jobless rate was higher than the U.S. average of 3.8% but lower than the California rate of 5.2%.

The trade, transportation and utilities sector, which includes work in brick-and-mortar retail locations and Amazon warehouses, added 1,700 jobs from November to December. It is typical for retail hiring to surge during the holidays and it helped cover job losses in other industries.

Daniel Enemark, chief economist of the San Diego Regional Policy and Innovation Center, said the local economy is remarkable in how unremarkable it has been. He said the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was statistically unchanged for five straight months — something that hasn’t happened in the last decade.

“In other words, we’ve had five months of essentially no variation, beyond the typical seasonal effects, in unemployment,” Enemark said.

He said the jobless rate, when adjusted to seasonal swings, was closer to 4.6%. That compares with the 4.1% U.S. average and 5.5% for California.

Outside of retail, other San Diego County sectors didn’t fair as well in December. Private education and health services lost the most jobs at 600. Work in the category includes nursing and social assistance. Other job losses were in general services (laundry, maintenance, religious) at 400 and government (mainly education) lost 100.

Outside of retail, construction added the second-most jobs with 300. Other industries adding positions were professional and business services (legal, scientific, waste management, architectural) with 200; Information (telecommunications, newspapers, publishing industry) with 200; Leisure and hospitality (hotels, casinos, restaurants) with 200; and financial activities (real estate, insurance, investments) with 100.

Despite a relatively low and stable unemployment rate, Enemark said San Diego workers probably still feel their jobs aren’t keeping up with the high cost of living here.

“There are plenty of jobs, but not enough jobs that provide financial self-sufficiency,” he said.

Enemark cited a San Diego Foundation report from 2023 that found over a third of San Diegans live in households that do not earn enough to cover the costs of a lower standard of living without government assistance.

More people continued to join the labor force in December, after ups and down all year. There were 1.59 million people in the labor force, adults who either have a job or are actively looking for one. However, that is only a gain of 2,900 workers in a year.

There were 8.6 million Americans with more than one job in December, said the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was down from 8.7 million last December, but up from 8.1 million in December 2022.

On an annual basis, San Diego County added 9,000 jobs. The total was affected by the manufacturing sector, which lost 4,300 jobs. President Donald Trump has said growing manufacturing jobs is a focus of his second term. In a speech Thursday to world leaders he vowed to turn the U.S. into a “manufacturing superpower.”

Other San Diego County job losses were in information with 900 positions lost, as well as professional and business services that lost 800.

The biggest growth industry over the past year was private education and health services, which added 10,500 positions. In addition to nursing, the sector saw growth in ambulatory health care services, private colleges and residential care facilities.

Other categories that grew in 2024 were construction, with 1,800 new jobs; leisure and hospitality, with 1,100; trade, transportation and utilities, with 1,000; financial activities with 300; government with 200; and general services with 100.

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 4.3%.

The rate was 5.7% in Los Angeles County, 3.8% in Orange County, 3.5% in San Francisco County, 3.8% in Santa Clara County, 6.3% in Santa Cruz County and 5% in Riverside County.