Employment and Income

The global COVID-19 pandemic caused acute social and economic disruption, causing unemployment to peak at nearly 16% in San Diego County. The region lost 233,900 jobs during this time and recovered the number of jobs in November 2021. Job growth started to slow in 2023, with unemployment increasing from 3.5% in the first quarter to 4.4% in the fourth quarter. In 2025, unemployment rose up to 4.9%, a level not seen since 2021. Still, unemployment levels remain stable and within the bounds of the natural unemployment rate of 4 to 5%.

*Defense is listed separately from the Federal Government to show the size of the sector.

As of January 2026, the largest sectors were private education and health service, professional and business services, and trade, transportation, and utilities. Between 2025 and 2026, private education and health services sector saw a growth of more than 17,000 jobs, which is a 6.5% increase.

In 2024, a household with the size of two adults and two school-age children needed to earn $120,287 to sustain a comfortable lifestyle. In 2014, this figure was $63,356, indicating that it is now almost twice as expensive to raise a family of this size than compared to ten years ago. According to the U.S. Census, the median household income for families with children under the age of 18 was $123,519 in 2024, which suggests that just under half of these families do not earn enough to cover their basic needs comfortably.

For the self-sufficiency standard of households of smaller or larger size, visit the Center for Women’s Welfare Self-Sufficiency Standard. For insights into the cost of living for older adults, visit the California Elder Index (CEI) Cost of Living Dashboards.

Looking at single-parent families, there are significant income differences. In 2024, single mothers earned about $52,000 per year, compared to about $83,000 for single fathers, a gap that has remained largely unchanged in recent years. At the same time, the estimated cost of meeting basic needs for one adult and one school-age child in San Diego is about $89,000 per year. This means more than half of single fathers fall short of affording all basic needs and significantly more single mothers struggle to meet basic needs. As a result, many single parents struggle to cover everyday expenses, with single mothers facing the greatest challenges. To put this into perspective, before and after school childcare programs and all-day summer programs can cost parents $1,254 a month, or about $15,000 a year.

In 2024, the median household income in San Diego was $106,268, which is greater than the median household incomes of American Indian and Alaska Native, Hispanic or Latino, and Black or African American communities. The median income represents the exact half-way point of a community's lowest and highest income levels. Therefore, it is more likely that these communities are experiencing financial challenges.

Generally speaking, unemployment levels in Baja California are lower than Mexico’s overall unemployment rate. Average quarterly unemployment in Baja California was 2.4% in 2025. The rate of informal occupation increased, with about 658,000 individuals working in the informal sector. These jobs include street vendors, temporary agricultural workers, house cleaners, or mechanics. The rise in unemployment over the past year could be attributed to declines in the construction sector as tariffs imposed by the U.S. affected steel, copper, and other materials.