Tag: Inclusive Growth

Inclusive Growth Spotlight: Cajon Valley Union School District

By San Diego Regional EDC,

EDC’s Inclusive Growth blog series highlights and celebrates local companies and organizations helping drive economic growth and progress toward San Diego’s 2030 Inclusive Growth goals.

Launched in 2018 and informed by a partnership with the Brookings Institution, the Inclusive Growth initiative sets 2030 goals for San Diego related to increasing: 1) the supply of talent, 2) quality small business jobs, and 3) newly thriving households. The goals inform San Diego’s economic priorities and make the business case for economic inclusion.

Regional talent demand remains high

To maintain economic competitiveness, the region needs 20,000 students per year completing post-secondary education within six years of graduating high school.

While progress toward the goal has increased incrementally since 2017, talent scarcity has become the new normal as hiring demand exceeds the supply of talent across industries. Compounding this challenge, student success is demographically uneven as Hispanics and Latinos only account for 17 percent of residents over 25 years old with at least a bachelor’s degree. Employer-led talent pipeline development efforts are critical to the future of San Diego’s economy, and Cajon Valley Union School District is among those working toward a solution.

Meet CVUSD.

The Cajon Valley Union School District (CVUSD) serves approximately 18,000 students across 28 schools spanning more than 60-square-miles in East San Diego County. Located in one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse regions of San Diego, the district has earned national recognition for its innovative approach to education, its commitment to whole child development, and its focus on preparing students for meaningful futures. At the center of the district’s work is a mission that guides every aspect of its approach to education: Happy Kids, Healthy Relationships, on a Path to Gainful Employment.

This mission reflects a belief that schools must do more than deliver academic content. Schools must help young people understand who they are, what they care about, and how their strengths can translate into meaningful contributions in the world.

An opportunity to re-define career preparedness

CVUSD serves one of the most diverse student populations in San Diego County. Many students are multilingual learners, newcomers to the United States, or the first in their families to navigate American education systems and postsecondary opportunities.

At the same time, San Diego faces a significant workforce development challenge, requiring education systems to rethink how they prepare students for the future. Historically, K–12 education and workforce development systems were not designed to respond dynamically to labor market changes, emerging industries, or employer needs. CVUSD has addressed this challenge by intentionally redesigning the student experience around identity, relevance, and future readiness.

An innovative approach to career-connected learning

Over the past decade, CVUSD has become nationally recognized for its World of Work framework—an innovative system that integrates career awareness, strengths discovery, and real-world learning experiences throughout the K–8 educational journey. Using the Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional career development assessment and model, students research professions aligned with their interests and strengths, interview professionals about their work, and present their findings through projects that connect classroom learning to real professions and pathways.

Career literacy is embedded throughout the curriculum. Students encounter real-world applications within reading and writing assignments, research projects, collaborative problem-solving challenges, and presentations that strengthen both academic and professional communication skills. Equally important, students regularly interact with professionals across San Diego’s major industry sectors.

This approach helps students see purpose in their education. In a recent district survey, 73% of students in fourth through eighth grade agreed with the statement, “The things I’m learning in school are important to my future.” This data reflects a powerful shift in how students experience learning, understanding that what they are studying today connects directly to the opportunities they may pursue tomorrow.

To expand these opportunities even further, CVUSD recently launched the World of Work Foundation, a nonprofit initiative designed to connect schools, employers, and community organizations around a shared vision for workforce development, and therefore expanding mentorship networks, employer partnerships, youth apprenticeship opportunities, and work-based learning experiences for students throughout the region.

In a region working to close opportunity gaps and build a stronger talent pipeline, CVUSD is preparing young people not only to graduate but to thrive.

Join the movement

Progress on EDC’s 2030 Inclusive Growth goals is only achievable with and through the region’s employers scaling innovative and intentional solutions. Anchor institutions like SDG&E are helping to collectively pave the way toward a more inclusive regional economy. Join us:

To learn more and get involved in EDC’s work, contact:

Bree Burris
Bree Burris

Sr. Director, Communications & Community Engagement

2025 Thriving Households update: Affordability pressures persisted

By Alberto Fragoso & Sofia Nelson-Ferezi,

San Diego has continued to show progress in reaching our Inclusive Growth goals with 2024 median household income experiencing a 29 percent increase since 2019. Despite promising recent growth in annual earnings across the county, San Diego remains one of the most expensive metros in the U.S. By the end of 2024, households needed an income exceeding $235,000 to afford the median-priced home, a threshold that, combined with elevated interest rates, places homeownership further out of reach for most San Diegans.

On average, homeowners faced housing costs of $4,748 per month in 2024, 55.5 percent higher than 2019 costs. Because household income growth has failed to keep pace with the cost of living, the gap between local housing costs and incomes continues to widen despite home prices stabilizing.

Renters face similar pressures. Average rent prices reached $4,039 in 2024, increasing by 8.3 percent over a year and 38 percent over five years. As household income struggles to catch up to increasing prices, 58 percent of renters remain cost-burdened, spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

Progress toward the goal

By the end of the decade, EDC estimated the region would need to add 75,000 newly thriving households. To be considered ‘thriving’ in 2024, a renter-occupied household needs at least $84,816 in household income per year, while a homeowner-occupied household needs $139,872 per year.

As of 2024, San Diego has added 38,157 newly thriving households since tracking began—a decrease from 2023 levels. The decline reflects eroding household purchasing power amid continued price pressures on essential goods including housing, groceries, and energy.

Addressing the supply challenge

To increase housing supply, local jurisdictions have made notable progress in streamlining permitting processes. Nearly 15,000 housing permits were approved in 2024, demonstrating continued momentum despite a slight decrease from 2023. However, the number of permits for moderate income housing dropped by 18.8 percent, highlighting the persistent challenge of the “missing middle” and insufficient affordable housing production. Furthermore, permits for low and very low income households dropped 47.4 percent compared to 2023.

Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) represented nearly 27 percent of all permits approved in 2024—up from 22 percent in 2023—and 66 percent of all permits approved at moderate level pricing. However, those priced above moderate continue to make up most of ADU permits. While ADUs offer an opportunity to increase housing stock in existing single-family home lots, they’re unlikely to solve the region’s housing crises alone.

Developers cite several obstacles hampering housing production. The multifamily development market has become oversaturated, reducing incentives for new entrants. Current policies favor small units that do little to address the scale of San Diego’s housing needs. Rising construction costs, coupled with high insurance premiums and litigation risks, have the power to prevent projects from ever breaking ground.

At a broader level, California continues to experience a decline in construction employment, with a 1.9 percent annual decrease in 2024. This could be a potential contributing factor to slowed construction in coming years. This is especially relevant in states like California where the construction workforce is particularly reliant on immigrant workers. In fact, 40 percent of the construction workforce is comprised of foreign-born labor, potentially affecting construction-related labor under the current immigration enforcement landscape.

Extended timelines from permitting to groundbreaking further diminish project viability. Addressing these barriers will require better incentives for risk-taking and access to more flexible financing options.

Creative solutions for persistent challenges

Recent announcements signal significant office space vacancies in downtown San Diego. Major real estate firms including the Irvine Co. have been divesting San Diego office towers since 2024, reflecting broader shifts in the commercial real estate market. This challenge presents an opportunity.

Converting vacant office space into housing could revitalize areas where commercial properties no longer contribute meaningfully to the local economy. However, conversion costs can be prohibitively high. In many cases, demolishing outdated office buildings to construct multifamily housing may prove more economically feasible.

Similarly, conversions of single-family home lots into multiple single-family lots could have significant impact on housing affordability. According to LISC’s single family lot size reduction analysis, allowing multiple townhomes on one single family lot could lower home prices by 42 percent. Additionally, if 1.4 percent of the City of San Diego’s current single family lots were allowed to build multiple townhomes on one single family lot, the amount of new property taxes generated would be approximately $450 million each year, just for the County of San Diego. These innovative efforts require streamlined permitting, supportive re-zoning, and infrastructure assessment from local governments.

Identifying which vacant office properties are suited for conversion—or demolition and redevelopment—should be the first step. Addressing San Diego’s supply-constrained market will require strong public-private collaboration and regional strategies to explore innovative solutions at the scale needed to meet the region’s housing demands.

In February 2026, EDC’s Thriving Households Roundtable provided an opportunity to discuss employer-led solutions to these pressing challenges and to hear about innovative initiatives from local leaders such as LISC, cREate Development, and Center for Housing Policy and Design.

Join the movement. Endorse our Inclusive Growth goals.

Bree Burris
Bree Burris

Sr. Director, Communications & Community Engagement

A note from Taylor: San Diego’s workforce in 2026

By Taylor Dunne,

Dear EDC investors and partners,

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.

Taylor Dunne
Taylor Dunne

Director, Talent Initiatives

More FROM Advancing SaN Diego

More on inclusive growth

A note from Eduardo: Looking into the 2026 crystal ball

By Eduardo Velasquez,

An inflection point

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.

LGSD!

Eduardo Velasquez
Eduardo Velasquez

Vice President, Economic Development & Research

 

Explore economic trends from prior years:

More FROM EDC’s research bureau

More on inclusive growth

Local procurement means big impact: The power of the Anchor Institution Collaborative

By Lindsey Silvia,

Collaboration, one of San Diego’s greatest strengths, is at the core of the EDC’s Anchor Institution Collaborative: A partnership between the region’s largest buyers committed to using their combined purchasing power to strengthen our local economy.

Launched in 2020, the Anchor Institution Collaborative brings together San Diego universities, hospitals, utilities, and large companies around a shared goal of supporting small, local, and diverse businesses to drive inclusive economic growth.

Working with and through our largest buyers

EDC’s role has always been to work with and through large employers and entities that are physically bound to our region to create change that reaches across the business ecosystem. Local anchors—including CSU San Marcos, the San Diego International Airport, Dexcom, and others—have a powerful influence on how money and opportunity flow through the region.

These anchors drive real impact in San Diego, by buying locally and contracting with small and diverse suppliers. In 2024 alone, seven regional anchors we surveyed spent a combined $763 million with local diverse suppliers and $245 million with regional small businesses, representing 16 percent and five percent respectively of their total combined spend.

Looking ahead to 2026, the collaborative will continue to help anchor institutions identify strategic opportunities to expand local impact, through shared learning, goal-setting, and data collection. By continuing to align spend toward local, small, and diverse businesses, anchors can help create a stronger, more resilient economy for all of San Diego.

Investing in San Diego’s small business economy

Small businesses remain the backbone of San Diego’s economy, now accounting for 99 percent of all businesses and 59 percent of all jobs in the region. These companies create jobs, spark innovation, and bring character to every community.

While many small businesses struggle to compete with larger firms for contracts and cannot always offer comparable wages, securing a major contract from a large buyer is often a major turning point that enables these businesses to grow local quality jobs and better weather economic downturns. Our entire region prospers when small businesses can engage, compete, and win these contracts.

While spending toward small business represents only a portion of total anchor spending in San Diego, it signals a strengthening commitment among major employers to partner locally as global supply chains continue to shift. Of the data reported by the seven anchors surveyed, the share of spending directed toward small businesses increased by an average of 19 percent from 2023 to 2024. Though significant opportunities remain for anchors to further expand local procurement (particularly with small businesses), this growth reflects a meaningful deepening of their investment in the regional economy.

Now is a prime opportunity for small businesses to take advantage of this shift—anchor institutions are continuing to evolve their supply chain strategies to include supplier diversity initiatives, streamlined procurement processes, and new tools to connect with small vendors. For example, SDG&E’s Level Up webinar series is a collaboration with the San Diego and Imperial Small Business Development Center Network to help small businesses to gain the tools and confidence to compete for big contract opportunities. And UC San Diego’s Small Business First program works to direct contracts between $10,000 and $250,000 to certified small and diverse businesses when no large sourcing agreement exists. These efforts not only expand opportunities for small businesses but also maximize our region’s shared prosperity.

What’s next for the Anchor Institution Collaborative

In the coming year, EDC will support both big buyers and small businesses through continued partnership among the Anchor Institution Collaborative.

EDC will continue to help large buyers in the Collaborative expand contracting opportunities through shared learning, goal-setting, and data collection.

In turn, the Collaborative will invest in small business growth and job creation by developing a playbook for vendors, creating a guide outlining the requirements for doing business with anchor institutions, and exploring a fund to help small businesses overcome financial barriers such as insurance premiums, certifications, and compliance costs.

The goal is simple: To make San Diego a place where large institutions and small businesses grow together—where every purchasing decision contributes to a more inclusive, resilient, and thriving local economy.

A collective effort

Economic development doesn’t happen in isolation. It requires inclusion and collaboration across sectors, shared accountability, and a long-term commitment to the region’s people and businesses. The Anchor Institution Collaborative is proof that when our largest employers work together to invest in and lift the smallest, we can collectively strengthen our local supply chain and build economic resilience.

As we look to the year ahead, EDC invites big buyers—whether you represent a healthcare system or a homegrown company, a sports team or an education institution—to join the Collaborative and share resources, expand opportunity, and work together to ensure that San Diego’s growth benefits us all.

Interested in leveraging your company’s spend to support San Diego small businesses?

GET INVOLVED

To learn more, contact:

Lindsey Silvia
Lindsey Silvia

Sr. Manager, Economic Development

Advancing San Diego summer internships bridge education and industry

By Emily Chowaniec,

Advancing San Diego: Building talent pipelines

EDC’s Advancing San Diego (ASD) internship program, run in partnership with the Border Region Talent Pipeline K-16 Collaborative and Imperial Valley EDC, has transformed how students across San Diego gain early career experience, while helping local businesses address talent needs. In Summer 2025, the ASD program placed 210 interns at 110 companies across San Diego and Imperial Counties, creating an invaluable bridge between education and industry in high-growth, high-wage fields like engineering, computing, and business. This program plays a crucial role in addressing regional talent shortages, helping local companies access vetted, diverse talent and offering students paid, hands-on learning opportunities in high-demand industries.

Summer 2025 by the numbers

*Priority populations include low-income individuals, first-generation college students, current community college students or community college transfers, veterans and active-duty military students, and students with disabilities

Addressing the talent gap with community impact

At the heart of ASD’s mission is a commitment to reaching under-resourced communities, ensuring that students from diverse backgrounds gain valuable career experience while helping local businesses address critical talent needs. Companies apply each year by early spring to host students from Advancing San Diego Verified Programs to be interns. These Verified Programs are selected based on industry-determined criteria, including industry engagement, diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as curriculum that teaches the most in-demand skills in computing, engineering, and business. This approach ensures that students’ skills align with evolving workforce demands, enhancing the overall impact of the internship experience.

EDC recruits local small to medium-sized businesses to host interns, and once companies are selected, students from Verified Programs apply for available internship roles. With more student applicants than available positions, students from priority populations receive preferred access to internship positions. In Summer 2025, 82 percent of interns identified with one or more priority populations, up nine percent from 2024. Importantly, the program provides financial support covering intern wages at a competitive rate. In 2025, local companies saved more than $1 million in payroll costs, ensuring businesses can prioritize mentorship and on-the-job training over recruitment logistics.

Real-world experience and career advancement

Each year, the internship program provides students with valuable work experience directly linked to their academic pursuits, equipping them with practical skills and career confidence. At the same time, companies benefit from student contributions. Surveyed companies shared that hosting interns improved their outlook on early-career talent: 91 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the program increased their likelihood of hiring a university student, and 82 percent said the same for community college students. For employers, this means a pipeline of highly motivated, well-prepared candidates who bring immediate value.

Day in the Life of a San Diego Intern video campaign

During the 2025 summer internship program, ASD launched its first “Day in the Life of a San Diego Intern” video campaign, inviting interns to share a glimpse into their internship experience through short videos. Thanks to generous donations from the San Diego Padres, San Diego FC, San Diego Wave FC, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and SeaWorld San Diego, ASD was able to give five lucky winners tickets to signature San Diego experiences. The video campaign gave ASD interns the opportunity to share their professional experiences with the local business community and increase exposure of careers in San Diego to diverse groups of local young talent.

“After our sixth year partnering with this valuable program, Left Coast Engineering has hosted more than a dozen interns across electrical, mechanical, and aerospace engineering, plus computer science majors. As a small business here in San Diego since 1999, we see this as an opportunity to help develop and equip these engineering students with both the skillsets and mindset for successful product development. Our goal is to help engineers graduate with more experience and more value to benefit any hiring company.”

—Anita Baranowski, CEO, Left Coast Engineering

Is your company interested in hosting summer interns in 2026?

Apply now

Learn more about San Diego’s workforce trends and insights

Explore the talent dashboard

To learn more and get involved in EDC’s work, contact:

Emily Chowaniec
Emily Chowaniec

Coordinator, Talent Initiatives

Report: Meeting San Diego’s healthcare talent needs beyond 2025

By Bridgette Coleman,

Strengthening San Diego’s RN pipeline and expanding specialty training

Healthcare is San Diego’s second largest sector, supporting 160,000 jobs throughout San Diego County and providing critical care for our community. However, a national nursing shortage and aging population are intensifying the demand for skilled healthcare professionals. Simultaneously, communication breakdowns between regional industry and education are leading to misunderstandings around the supply and demand of talent.

To better understand San Diego’s regional demand for talent, EDC’s Advancing San Diego program conducted a comprehensive talent demand survey focused on priority roles in healthcare. The survey engaged nine of the region’s largest healthcare providers, collectively employing 66,000 and operating more than 175 regional facilities, to understand real-time data around critical nursing positions.

Key findings

  • Like much of the nation, San Diego faces a critical shortage of skilled nurses, with the highest demand for Registered Nurses (RNs). Labor market information indicates that the region will need more than 1,500 additional RNs in the next three years, but data from this working group revealed that new graduate nurses—those who have recently completed a training program—account for just 300 of the in-demand roles. Meanwhile, the region is graduating around 2,000 new RNs each year.
  • Most of the future regional demand for RNs will focus on specialization. Employers identified Operating Room RNs as the highest priority for specialty roles.
  • Regional healthcare employers reported a misalignment in the training of Radiological Technologists. 100 percent of surveyed employers said that cross-training Radiologic Technologists and Computed Tomography (CT) Technologists would add value to their organizations and emphasized a need for additional Imaging Technologists (X-ray, CT, Sonography, etc.) in the region.

Healthcare Talent Demand Report 2025

a critical need for specialty nurses

While traditional labor market data shows more than 15,000 regional job postings for RNs in 2024, the bulk of these postings are actually for experienced and specialty nurses, not entry-level roles. At the same time, regional education programs are graduating close to 2,000 RNs each year. The available labor market data does not differentiate demand based on entry-level versus experienced roles, creating a misalignment between employer need and the talent pipeline.

This misalignment illustrates how readily available labor market data—often the primary source for education institutions and policymakers—can misrepresent actual workforce needs

EDC’s employer working group verified this, reporting that regional demand for specialty RNs significantly outpaces demand for new graduate RNs, and ranked Operating Room, ICU/Critical Care, and Labor & Delivery RNs as their top hiring priorities.

Furthermore, as many employers pointed to the oversaturation of new graduate RNs as one reason for the frequently cited shortage of clinical placement opportunities, hospitals must balance the need to upskill incumbent nurses with the growing demand for new grad placements, all while working with an already strained pool of available preceptors. While many hospitals invest heavily in internal training to grow their staff, this model puts the burden of training solely on hospitals who are already feeling the strain of a limited workforce. Limited clinical placement capacity, high costs, and competition across healthcare systems make it increasingly difficult to keep pace with growth and turnover.

Across the nation and in San Diego, specialty RNs remain at the heart of quality care and operational efficiency, nursing career mobility. They support the next generation of nurses through training and precepting – an important factor in retaining talent in the region. Ensuring a steady pipeline of these skilled professionals is not only a workforce issue—it’s also essential to driving the future of San Diego’s innovative healthcare systems and standards of excellence.

San diego’s strong healthcare future

As hospitals focus on building solutions for specialty training, the region must also continue to strengthen the new graduate RN pipeline.

“A balanced healthcare workforce means investing in both new talent and advanced training. By working together as a region, we can create innovative solutions that meet today’s challenges and ensure San Diego’s healthcare system thrives for years to come.”

– Elmerissa Sheets, Senior Director Talent Acquisition and Development, Scripps Health

New graduates trained through local institutions form the foundation of San Diego’s nursing workforce and will be essential in healthcare systems’ ability to meet rising demand.

From there, San Diego’s healthcare providers have a critical opportunity to secure a strong regional talent pipeline and ensure healthy communities into the future—by investing in new graduate RNs and accelerating their pathways into specialty roles.

Explore the full report to learn more and see how the group is beginning to build solutions.

Explore more Talent Demand Reports

Check out Talent Demand Reports across other priority sectors to stay up to date on workforce trends in San Diego.

Dive into the data

Use EDC’s Data Dashboard to explore how local education programs align with regional workforce needs and identify equity gaps in real-time. The dashboard highlights race and gender disparities, program completions, and connections to priority occupations—all designed to support more data-informed talent development efforts in San Diego County.

To learn more and get involved in EDC’s work, contact talent@sandieogbusiness.org.

Bridgette Coleman
Bridgette Coleman

Sr. Manager, Talent Initiatives

Inclusive Growth Spotlight: San Diego State University

By Enya Castañeda,

EDC’s Inclusive Growth blog series highlights and celebrates San Diego companies and organizations helping drive economic growth and progress toward San Diego’s 2030 Inclusive Growth goals, launched in 2018 and informed by a partnership with the Brookings Institution.

Thriving households in San Diego

Decreasing affordability in San Diego threatens progress toward all the goals and disproportionately impacts communities of color. Household incomes have not kept pace with the cost-of-living reflected in basic household needs such as transportation, grocery expenditures, and childcare, leaving only one in 10 households able to afford the median-priced home in the region. As of 2023, San Diego has added 49,916 newly thriving households (chart below) bringing the total number of San Diego’s thriving households in the region to 610,983—51.7 percent of total households.

Read the latest Update

 

Meet SDSU’s Mission Valley Innovation District

San Diego State University (SDSU) is a top-tier public R1 institution that provides transformative educational experiences for more than 43,000 students in person and online, ranking among California’s leading public research universities. Building on this foundation, the SDSU Mission Valley Innovation District extends the university’s mission by fostering collaboration between academia and industry. The 1.6 million square-foot hub for office, technology, and research space creates new career pathways for students, drives regional economic growth, and advances innovative solutions to pressing societal challenges.

Promoting thriving student and faculty households

A significant challenge that SDSU faces in supporting thriving households is the rising home prices and rental costs which far outpace income growth—making it increasingly difficult for students, faculty, and staff to live near campus. For students, housing insecurity can affect academic success and well-being; for employees, it can hinder recruitment and retention, particularly among early-career professionals and those with families.

As SDSU expands through projects like SDSU Mission Valley, the university continues to explore partnerships, policy solutions, and innovative models that increase access to attainable housing while maintaining the quality and sustainability of the surrounding community. Maintaining affordability is a central focus so that students and employees can live and thrive where they learn and work—all essential to advancing SDSU’s mission of opportunity, equity, and regional impact.

Addressing affordability on multiple fronts

SDSU’s Mission Valley Innovation District is designed to advance economic opportunity and improve regional affordability through intentional planning and partnerships. Recognizing housing costs as a primary barrier to thriving households, SDSU Mission Valley will include more than 4,600 residential units, with 10 percent designated as affordable housing. The project’s transit-oriented design connects directly to the trolley, reducing transportation costs and improving access to employment and education. In addition, SDSU continues to explore partnerships that expand childcare options and support working families within the Innovation District.

Hear from SDSU:

“SDSU and EDC have a shared commitment to advancing economic growth, regional talent development, and innovation. SDSU continues to invest in EDC, because EDC serves as a vital convener of regional stakeholders, bringing together leaders from government, education, and the private sector who also share common priorities and challenges. Through EDC’s programs, roundtables, and trade delegations, SDSU gains valuable connections and insights that strengthen collaboration across sectors. EDC’s data-informed approach supports evidence-based decision-making, helping partners align strategies to address regional needs in workforce development, housing, and economic growth. This collective effort directly advances SDSU’s mission of driving opportunity and innovation across the region.”

Join the movement

Progress on EDC’s 2030 Inclusive Growth goals is only achievable with and through the region’s employers scaling innovative and intentional solutions. Anchor institutions like SDG&E are helping to collectively pave the way toward a more inclusive regional economy. Join us:

To learn more and get involved in EDC’s work, contact:

Lauree Sahba
Lauree Sahba

Chief Operating Officer

Inclusive Growth Spotlight: SDG&E

By San Diego Regional EDC,

EDC’s Inclusive Growth blog series highlights and celebrates local companies and organizations helping drive economic growth and progress toward San Diego’s 2030 Inclusive Growth goals.

Among the regional goals, EDC identifies increasing quality* small business jobs in San Diego as an economic imperative, with small businesses representing 99 percent of all firms in the region and accounting for 60 percent of total employment—outpacing the national average. Despite significant contributions, small businesses struggle to keep up in an increasingly expensive market.

Small, localized investments can drive quality job growth in small businesses

With a goal to add 50,000 new quality jobs in small businesses by the end of the decade, the latest data shows a surge in progress after years of steady recovery. In 2024, the region added 43,449 new quality small business jobs, marking an increase of about 3,000 jobs since 2023 and the closest we have ever been to reaching the goal.

While the significant rise in quality jobs is reassuring, employer-led efforts to support small businesses remain critical to the future of the region’s economy, and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) is among the local institutions contributing to the progress.

Read the latest Update

SDG&E’s commitment to supplier diversity in procurement spending

SDG&E has been proudly powering the regional economy for more than 140 years. The company was founded in 1881 to supply gas for streetlights when the City of San Diego had a population of just over 3,000. Today, SDG&E serves 3.7 million consumers spanning 25 communities in San Diego and southern Orange counties. As an anchor institution in the region, SDG&E is committed to delivering clean, safe, and reliable energy while fostering inclusive economic growth through its supply chain.

In 2024 alone, SDG&E had nearly $3 billion in procurement spending and billions more in economic impact, fueling local businesses, creating jobs, and strengthening the regional economy. Nearly 45 percent of the utility’s total procurement spend in 2024 was with diverse suppliers, including enterprises owned by minorities, women, veterans, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ individuals. Notably, $632 million of SDG&E’s spend in 2024 was in San Diego County.

Every year, SDG&E works with hundreds of suppliers of all sizes, with a wide range of offerings to meet the needs of its diverse customer base and achieve local and statewide goals for clean energy, safety, and reliability. SDG&E’s impact extends beyond energy infrastructure; its employees give back to the community through thousands of hours of volunteerism, and donations to local nonprofits to advance economic prosperity, STEM education, and other causes. Interested in doing business with SDG&E? Fill out the Supplier Interest Form here.

How SDG&E supports job creation and growth in the region

Recognizing that local, small, and/or diverse businesses face challenges in navigating procurement processes and requirements in the energy world—including prerequisites such as insurance and safety certifications—SDG&E has a dedicated responsible sourcing team to support suppliers through that process. The team focuses on supplier engagement and development, supply chain sustainability, and supplier risk management, with the goal of creating a more competitive, innovative, and resilient supply chain.

Supplier diversity from multiple lenses

Having a diverse set of local firms varying in size and location brings different ideas to the table, which helps mitigate risks associated with group think, supplier over-consolidation, and over-concentration. SDG&E’s responsible sourcing team has contacts in industries beyond energy—so even if the utility doesn’t need your good or service, the team may know someone else who does.

“As much as possible, we try to buy local to help create jobs and support our regional economy. Our team has long prioritized an inclusive and diverse supply chain, including spending more than $1 billion last year with certified diverse businesses,” said Dan Skopec, SDG&E Senior Vice President and Chief Regulatory Officer, and EDC Board Member. “Growing our local supplier base has also become more important because of global supply chain disruptions stemming from geopolitical events and tariffs.”

Direct outreach, programs, and local partnerships support small businesses

SDG&E conducts extensive outreach to local small and/or diverse suppliers and provides technical support, often on a one-on-one basis. The team also connects suppliers with resources provided by other partner organizations to develop and support suppliers, including the Small Business Development Center (housed at Southwestern College), The Veterans In Business (VIB) Network, Women’s Business Enterprise Council (WBEC)-West, Building, and DisabilityIN, to name a few. These organizations help address challenges such as insurance barriers, access to capital, and cybersecurity requirements.

As an active participant in the company’s competitive solicitations, the responsible sourcing team conducts research to identify qualified small and diverse suppliers for consideration by primes and SDG&E business units. The effort also makes procurement opportunities more accessible to smaller suppliers, working with project teams which break large projects into smaller segments to bid them out.

Outside of its responsible sourcing program, the utility also offers support to small businesses looking to electrify their fleet or seeking energy management coaching.

SDG&E small business support:

Continued investment in EDC is an investment in our community

SDG&E has been a supporter of EDC for the past 25 years. This long-standing collaboration is the result of a shared commitment to advancing economic prosperity and inclusive growth in the region. SDG&E supports EDC’s mission to mobilize business, government, and civic leaders around strategies that enhance San Diego’s global competitiveness and economic resilience. The utility proudly engages with EDC as an investor and member of the board of directors, and involves senior officers in various programs and initiatives, bringing SDG&E’s top talent to the table.

EDC’s standout programs/services for SDG&E include the Anchor Collaborative, Advancing San Diego, Community Explorer data tools, and the MetroConnect export accelerator, which provide critical infrastructure for regional growth.

Join the movement

Progress on EDC’s 2030 Inclusive Growth goals is only achievable with and through the region’s employers scaling innovative and intentional solutions. Anchor institutions like SDG&E are helping to collectively pave the way toward a more inclusive regional economy. Join us:

*A quality small business job is defined as one provided by a company with fewer than 100 employees and that pays at least $24.48 per hour and provides healthcare benefits.

To learn more and get involved in EDC’s work, contact:

Bree Burris
Bree Burris

Sr. Director, Communications & Community Engagement

A note from Mark in September: From classrooms to careers

By Mark Cafferty,

“Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends.”
—Green Day

EDC investors, board members, and partners,

It’s that time of year again. If you happen to be a parent or grandparent of a certain age, live near a college or university, or work with or adjacent to higher education in any way, you know that more than 200,000 students have just made their way back to campuses, classrooms, dorm rooms, and lecture halls across our region. All ages and backgrounds. Residents and commuters. Adult learners and recent high school graduates. Hopeful. Motivated. Excited. All the things a region could and should hope for as it looks to grow and sustain a world-class economy and a world-class workforce.

To know and understand anything about the history of San Diego and our economy is to know and understand the value, strength, and importance of higher education. The critical role that our universities, community colleges, and learning communities have played over the last several decades cannot be overstated. As an economic development community, we must never forget what an important role they have played in growing and diversifying our region.

Yet as classes begin this year, unprecedented challenges continue to mount for San Diego and for our nation’s higher education institutions. Federal funding cuts; legal battles for individual universities, systems, and student populations; escalating costs, and constant threats and heated rhetoric coming from Washington, D.C. are all creating strains, burdens, and pressures that will test the system like never before. Even more so within the State of California. But as we look toward an uncertain future, let us continue to draw inspiration, strength, and resolve from the certainty of the past.

The story of higher education in the San Diego region continues to be one of inspirational growth and resilience against the backdrop of near constant challenge. Over the last century, our colleges and universities have grown from educating a few hundred students a year to hundreds of thousands of students a year. Through world wars, depressions and recessions, the rise and fall of industries, near unthinkable technological and scientific advancement, and an almost unimaginable public health pandemic, they have not only endured—they have thrived. As millions of learners have walked across stages to earn their diplomas, they have walked out into our community to start careers, grow businesses, and power industries. The San Diego economy has grown around them and because of them. And it still does.

A new chapter of history surrounds us. The stakes are certainly high for the education community and for the growth and sustainability of our economy. How we react and respond to this moment will tell future generations a great deal about who we were. And someday, if I should appear anywhere in those historical stories and records, you will most certainly find me standing side by side with our leaders and partners in higher education—right where I hope to find all of you as well.

Wishing you well this September,

Mark

P.s., EDC and Junior Achievement are surveying businesses to understand the benefits of hosting interns. If your San Diego company has recently hosted an intern, please share your insight.

Mark Cafferty
Mark Cafferty

President & CEO

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