Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower.
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For the week of February 20, 2026, here’s what we’re reading:
From statewide leadership to regional execution: San Diego’s role in fusion’s next chapter
With North America’s largest tokamak reactor in Poway, key contributions to international fusion project ITER, and top-tier technical talent, San Diego’s opportunity for successful fusion commercialization is undeniable. With statewide momentum and investment potential, our region has a chance to double down and capture the full economic benefit of fusion’s next chapter.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of February 13, 2026, here’s what we’re reading:
San Diego’s economic engine has always been its people. And as EDC’s Director of Talent Initiatives Taylor Dunne takes a look ahead at “a year defined by promise and pressure, we have more questions than answers: What is the role of post-secondary education in our changing region? How is AI shifting jobs and industries? And what does this mean for San Diego’s early career talent, our region’s leaders of tomorrow?”
Last month, EDC’s Vice President of Economic Development and Research Eduardo Velasquez reminded us that San Diego stands at an inflection point—where technological transformation is colliding with long‑standing economic challenges in ways previously unseen. His note highlighted a region defined by promise and pressure: Slowing innovation‑sector job growth, rising household incomes shadowed by affordability constraints, and AI reshaping the very nature of work.
A month into 2026, more questions than answers remain, especially when it comes to talent: What is the role of post-secondary education in our changing region? How is AI shifting jobs and industries? And what does this mean for San Diego’s early career talent, our region’s leaders of tomorrow?
Built on talent—but facing new realities
San Diego’s economic engine has always been its people. With more than 100 research and education institutions, our region has long produced the skilled talent that fuels innovation, defense, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing.
The good news: More San Diego students are completing degrees and credentials than ever before. The region has sustained progress in completions, even as the pandemic’s long‑term impacts remain murky. But the data also makes one thing clear: Post-secondary education is more critical than ever. Jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher continue to grow at a significantly faster rate than those requiring less education. In fact, in 2025, San Diego added six times more jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree or more versus those requiring an associate degree or less.
Additionally, the growth of legacy industry clusters that have served as the backbone of San Diego’s global competitiveness—tech, life sciences, and manufacturing—is slowing down. While bright spots remain in emerging industries like cleantech and aerospace (namely defense technology) that are critical to the region’s future competitiveness, transformations in these industries and varied levels of AI integration represent significant changes to the entire U.S. economy. Their effects will ripple throughout the whole workforce.
Take the cleantech industry, for example, as policy-backed efforts to decarbonize in California are leading to more electrification. As buildings modernize, we might expect increased need for electricians, while the need for gas-line plumbers decreases. The auto mechanic historically focused on combustion engines must now become familiar with hybrid and electric motors. And the manufacturing company that embeds machine learning and automation now requires a person who can analyze and tell a story with the resulting data.
A future workforce that doesn’t yet see a future
Across the U.S., young college‑educated workers are facing a “unique convergence of structural forces” that have severed traditional entry points into white‑collar work.
AI is accelerating this shift. Automation and augmentation are happening within jobs, not just across them. The occupations where automation potential is high are the same ones where augmentation potential is high—meaning AI may not necessarily eliminate an occupation, but rather transform how an employee executes their tasks.
With lower barrier to entry tasks most exposed to automation, the entry-level or new graduate workforce risks being edged out of opportunities to launch. Meanwhile, the nature of the tasks exposed to augmentation will require mid-level workers to continue upskilling to remain competitive.
As for long-term impacts? It’s too early to tell. San Diego’s labor market data does not yet reflect an overhaul of entry-level roles. Job growth across innovation industries at all levels has declined over the last few years, and while entry-level job growth has declined slightly faster, it has not been the job elimination of our nightmares.
What remains constant in our conversations with employers across industries and occupations is a need for soft skills that will never be automated. Skills like communication, empathy, and problem solving are more fashionable than ever. In fact, this demand has been so persistent that workforce developers and educators have taken to calling these “durable” skills—though figuring out how best to cultivate them in students may be the next great challenge.
In a time of transitioning tech, too, regional employers are doubling down on opportunities to future-proof their workforce. We’ve heard from San Diego companies that are making a deliberate effort to traditionally train early career employees in the skills AI could support, both to strengthen institutional knowledge and develop future leaders. And local tech heavyweights are continuing to proactively invest in both tomorrow’s talent and technology, maintaining internship programs that convert as many as three in four interns to full-time roles and leveraging new technologies early to instill technical skills in the emerging workforce.
Lean in with us
To meet these challenges, EDC is doubling down on initiatives that align education, industry, and talent. Through regional and even national partnerships, we will continue to facilitate work-based learning like internships and apprenticeships, and equip the region to better understand its labor market needs.
Here’s how you can lean in:
Host a summer intern from a Verified Program: All intern hosts will work with an employer of record and have access to a pre-vetted batch of resumes. Small businesses may qualify for interns’ wages to be subsidized or fully covered. Learn about our Advancing San Diego internship program.
Hire from Verified Programs in San Diego: These local programs are employer-verified for teaching in-demand skills as well as serving a diverse student population. To connect with a Verified Program, reach out to EDC.
Help us collect critical regional talent data: With so many remaining questions, it has never been more important for training and education institutions to keep a pulse on future talent demand. Our talent data dashboard, annual talent survey, and talent demand reports help local education programs prepare San Diegans with the skills your company needs. If your company is experiencing shifts in talent needs, we want to hear about it.
San Diego’s future workforce is diverse, ambitious, and full of potential—but only if we build the systems that allow every resident to participate in and benefit from our innovation economy.
Your collaboration and investment—whether through hiring, training, curriculum partnerships, or direct support of EDC initiatives—continues to ensure that San Diego can cultivate the talent that creates, attracts, and retains cutting‑edge companies, strengthens our innovation clusters, and secures San Diego’s economic future.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of February 6, 2026, here’s what we’re reading:
Redefine the future of medicine: Build your career in cell and gene therapy
San Diego is fast becoming a global launchpad for cell and gene therapy breakthroughs—and the companies behind these innovations are hiring. Discover how this fast‑growing sector is reshaping modern medicine and why top scientists and engineers are building their careers here in San Diego.
In February 2026, with Mayor Todd Gloria and underwriters Booz Allen Hamilton, JPMorganChase, and Qualcomm, World Trade Center San Diego (WTCSD) and San Diego and Imperial SBDC Network unveiled the eighth cohort of 15 companies selected to participate in MetroConnect, the region’s comprehensive international sales accelerator.
Since the program’s debut in 2015, 110 MetroConnect alumni have collectively added 357 new jobs to the region, signed more than 552 new contracts, and set up 28 new overseas facilities. Cohort companies grow their exports by an average of 66 percent and revenues by 45 percent as part of the program.
Alumni include Novo Brazil Brewing Co., Access Trax, Aquacycl, White Labs, Dr. Bronner’s, Scientist.com, Cloudbeds, Cypher Genomics (acquired by Human Longevity Inc.), and many more.
The MetroConnect program is highly competitive, with just 15 companies selected based on a variety of criteria, including interest in new foreign markets, assessed impact of funds, current international traction and more. Applicants were assessed by a panel of senior level representatives from Biocom, Booz Allen, JPMorganChase, SDSU’s Wendy Gillespie Center for Advancing Global Business, U.S. Commercial Service, and WTCSD.
“Since 2015, the City of San Diego has partnered with MetroConnect to help local companies compete and succeed in the global economy,” said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. “Programs like this connect San Diego businesses to new markets, support job creation here at home, and strengthen the innovation economy that powers our region. We’re committed to backing homegrown companies as they scale, export, and take San Diego’s ideas to the world.”
Why go global?
Amid economic uncertainty, it is more important than ever to help local SMEs build resilience by facilitating increased sales in global markets.
In 2024 alone, San Diego exported $34.5 billion in goods overseas, as well as billions more in services like software, cybersecurity, engineering and research. SMEs produce 92 percent of those goods—driving home the importance of programs like MetroConnect.
“JPMorganChase is proud to support San Diego businesses and their global growth,” said Aaron Ryan, San Diego Region Manager, JPMorganChase. “MetroConnect has a strong track record of helping local companies drive increased revenue through effective export strategies, making them more competitive, efficient, and successful here at home. We’re proud to continue our commitment to supporting San Diego’s business community.”
Next up for MetroConnect VIII
The cohort will gain access to a suite of resources to support expansion into international markets, including executive workshops, mentorship and complimentary consulting from multinational corporations, and up to $30,000 in grant funding.
“The next few years present a key opportunity for San Diego businesses looking to build resilience in a shifting economic and trade landscape,” said Nikia Clarke, executive director of WTCSD. “The MetroConnect program remains a dedicated partner to these businesses, equipping San Diego’s growing firms to compete in global markets, help our region’s innovation change lives around the world, and create quality jobs here at home.”
WTCSD and San Diego and Imperial SBDC Network unveiled the new cohort at a community event at BCG San Diego. WTCSD is the Export Specialty SBDC for San Diego and Imperial Valley and works to cultivate a regional pipeline of export-ready firms.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of January 30, 2026, here’s what we’re reading:
Apply by Feb. 13: Host a fully funded intern (or two)!
Interested in strengthening your company’s talent pipeline? San Diego companies with fewer than 100 employees may apply to host up to two paid interns at no cost! Join the 300+ local companies that have collectively saved more than $4.3 million in payroll through Advancing San Diego.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of January 23, 2026, here’s what we’re reading:
Join us as we unveil the 15 San Diego companies selected to join MetroConnect, World Trade Center San Diego’s international sales accelerator. You’ll have the chance to connect with 100+ international business leaders, including key partners like EXIM Bank, U.S. Commercial Service, and international trade offices—and enter for the chance to win two round-trip tickets to anywhere in South America via Copa Airlines!
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of January 16, 2026, here’s what we’re reading:
2025 saw a complex economic landscape driven by uncertainty. In 2026, San Diego stands at an inflection point—one where technological transformation collides with traditional economic challenges in ways we haven’t seen before. EDC’s Vice President of Economic Development & Research Eduardo Velasquez shares the economic trends we’re watching in 2026.
As another year begins, I sit with my crystal ball once again to see what we can glean from the data we’ve received this past year and what implications it may have for our region’s economic growth in the year ahead.
The past year told a complex story, driven by uncertainty. On the surface, the U.S. economy performed remarkably well, achieving 4.3 percent real GDP growth in Q3 2025, representing an acceleration from a year ago. But this growth has been buoyed by unprecedented investment in AI led by a handful of companies, potentially masking deeper structural shifts beneath the surface.
The U.S. achieved this growth while creating just 584,000 jobs—roughly one-third the rate seen in the past decade. And while San Diego gained its fair share, adding 5,800 jobs through November 2025, all our job growth was principally concentrated in higher education, healthcare, and local government.
In 2026, San Diego stands at an inflection point—one where technological transformation collides with traditional economic challenges in ways we haven’t seen before.
Innovation industries are losing steam
Our region’s innovation engines—the traded clusters that have long defined San Diego’s competitive advantage—are sputtering. Cumulative job growth across aerospace, life sciences, tech, and manufacturing has plateaued or declined from pandemic-era peaks. Cleantech continues to add jobs, though it represents a smaller sliver and is also growing at a slower pace than in previous years. More concerning, it’s not just leaner firms we’re seeing, but fewer firms altogether. Firm growth across these key industries has stagnated, with only defense tech startups providing a bright spot in an otherwise sobering picture.
This matters because innovation industry jobs have an outsized impact on our economy, with each added job supporting another two jobs elsewhere in the economy. When these jobs contract, the ripple effects are significant.
So what’s going on? In part, it’s a tale of structural transformation. Professional, scientific, and technical service jobs, which our innovation cluster relies on, declined 3.3 percent through November 2025. Meanwhile, an additional 550,000 square feet of office space were vacated during the year, bringing total vacant space to 11.3 million square feet in a year with zero new construction. 2025 showed our region’s economy is increasingly dependent on fewer knowledge workers and thus less office space to host those workers.
Yet, investment is happening. Nationwide, construction spending toward data centers is set to eclipse that of traditional office buildings—a trend that accelerated dramatically after ChatGPT’s release. Infrastructure investments are building for servers, not people.
AI is picking up the slack, for now
Amid this disruption comes a silver lining—AI may be delivering what all new technologies promise: Productivity. Looking at inflation-adjusted average wages as a proxy for productivity growth, San Diego’s innovation industries have recovered from the pandemic. AI may be responsible for this recovery, enabling workers to do more with less. This could help explain the decline in local job postings, which fell six percent in 2025.
The question is whether this productivity boost translates into broader prosperity or simply allows companies to operate with smaller teams.
San Diego’s talent landscape reflects this uncertainty. While the value of a degree has been questioned more than perhaps any time in history, it still brings higher income and greater job security in our region. In the past decade, more than twice as many local jobs have been added that require a bachelor’s degree or higher than those requiring associate’s degrees or less. This trend accelerated in 2025, with jobs requiring bachelor’s degrees or higher outnumbering others by a factor of six.
Yet, new graduates are struggling in a job market that increasingly favors experience alongside credentials. The national unemployment rate for young college graduates stands at 4.8 percent, up more than a percentage point compared to before the pandemic.
The market signal is clear: Disruption continues to favor those with degrees and experience, even as the nature of work itself transforms.
Affordability is not a hoax; it’s an enigma
Incomes are up and people are spending their money, but they’re not happy about it. That’s because the essentials like housing, childcare, energy, and transportation continue to get more expensive—local energy prices, for instance, are up nine percent year-over-year as of November 2025.
Housing affordability remains the single biggest threat to regional prosperity. While San Diego’s median household income has increased 25 percent since 2020—a welcome development—the cost of homeownership has far outpaced these gains. The median-priced home fell slightly to $990,000 in Q3 2025, requiring a household income of $263,000 to afford the monthly mortgage payment. Even those looking to rent are facing an average monthly outlay of $2,900, which makes San Diego one of the most expensive counties to rent in the nation.
There’s a glimmer of hope: San Diego home sales increased 14 percent year-over-year in September 2025, suggesting some movement in a frozen market.
Yet meaningful housing market recovery will remain elusive until mortgage rates drop substantially enough to free homeowners locked into historically low rates or make room for significant new supply.
The year ahead
These trends—the pace and composition of job growth, AI’s impact in the demand for talent, and housing affordability—will define San Diego’s 2026.
Can we leverage regional strengths to capture new growth opportunities, particularly in defense tech where startups show momentum? Will hiring priorities shift to tap new pools of talent as employers rethink what it means to be a skilled worker? How do we make room for more housing in a region where working families are increasingly priced out, while the office is increasingly empty?
The answers aren’t in my crystal ball.
They require deliberate action through an intentional, inclusive economic development agenda. We must make sure our region—and our state—is a place that not only cultivates great ideas but also enables the realization of those ideas into solutions, products, and jobs. We must make it easier for builders to build infrastructure and easier for businesses to do business.
In 2026, EDC will work to position San Diego as the destination for defense tech investment, build pipelines to better address employers’ evolving talent needs, and identify opportunities to replace unused office with much needed housing and infrastructure for working families.
But we can only do this with and through you—our partners across industry and academia, local and state government.
Now more than ever, our goal remains constant: To maximize San Diego’s economic prosperity and global competitiveness through meaningful partnerships with our 150+ investors and regional stakeholders. We know where we are and where we need to go. Getting there in 2026 will require resolve, creativity, and bold action—together.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of January 9, 2026, here’s what we’re reading:
Rain or shine, Good News of the Week hits your inbox every Friday, offering a fresh dose of positivity as you end your week. We’ve compiled 2025’s top stories in Good News of the Year—and look forward to creating and curating more good news with you in 2026.
