North County has finally recovered the jobs it lost in the recession. That's the message delivered to hundreds of business leaders who gathered Wednesday to hear the latest economic trends at the third annual North County Economic Summit.
More than 1 million people live in San Diego’s North County, which stretches from Del Mar to Camp Pendleton, and from Oceanside to Borrego Springs.
North County was harder hit in the recession than San Diego County overall, but in the last year job growth has equaled or surpassed San Diego’s.
However, though unemployment has fallen from 7.8 percent to 4.4 percent in three years, Josh Williams of BW Research said there are still fewer middle-income jobs in North County than before the recession.
"A lot of those middle skill, middle wage jobs have disappeared," Williams said. "And to be honest, looking at the last eight years, they’re probably not coming back or not coming back at the level we would like them to."
William’s report shows clean technology, like solar energy, is one of the fastest growing industry clusters, though only employing about 6,000 people. The growth of biotech jobs slowed in 2015 in North County, due to a decline in testing laboratories. But jobs in the aerospace and defense sectors saw an uptick.
Carl Morgan, chief professional officer of the North County Economic Development Corp., said one reason for the difficulty in attracting middle-class jobs is lack of affordable housing.
"The housing issue in the county, and in North County in particular, is a really serious development issue — it’s a break in our economic development chain," Morgan said. “Only until we start really addressing that issue and providing entry-level housing across all income spectrums will we be able to achieve bringing those kinds of jobs.”
The BW Research Report showed more than a third of North County residents commute more than half an hour to work. Fewer than than two percent use public transit, while 87 percent drive alone.
Analysts said lower transit costs in expensive cites like San Francisco can help lower the cost of living and off-set high home prices.
