My Recruiting Blog

The outlook for San Diego County jobs is bright.

During November 2009, San Diego's index of leading economic indicators remained even, hinting at continuing improvement in the job market as more workers were hired and the area unemployment rate declined.

The index, which is maintained by the University of San Diego's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate, has not declined for eight months.

The index is mainly based on online job postings, which increased by .08 percent during November, breaking a 38-month decline, and first-time unemployment filings, which increased by .17 percent, accounting for the lowest number of new filings since March 2008.

"It's not necessarily that things are getting better, but they're definitely getting less bad," Alan Gin, an economist with the University of San Diego, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "The indicators are showing that we're getting much closer to having actual job growth in the county."

At the same time, the local unemployment rate decreased from 10.7 percent to 10.3 percent during November, and economists predict the jobless rate could drop to 9 percent or 9.5 percent by the end of this year.

In addition, local consumer confidence increased by 30 percent from November 2008, while the number of building permits declined and local stock prices were negative for the third month in a row.

Based on recent trends, economists are predicting that local employers could hire anywhere between 3,000 and 18,000 workers this year. Any amount of growth would be welcome, however, as local employers cut between 40,000 and 50,000 jobs during 2009.

"2009 was the worst year for employment on record for San Diego," Gin said. "It's possible that a year or two in the 1930s might have been worse, but we don't have enough solid data from back then to make a good comparison."