thanks for the info source,
thanks for the info source, Rich

I used ‘Earnings and Hours for All Employees’ and multiplied the hourly earnings by 2000

I couldn’t find a category for ‘government’ so I used ‘Administration and Support Services’

Professional Services as a sector shows $54K as average income – if you look at Professional, Scientific and Technical Services income jumps up to $68K – I suspect that in San Diego our Professional Services category leans toward the Scientific and Technical sub-category – I used the $54K number

the charts now have a consistent set of data for income

not all of the job sectors work the same number of hours per week so using 2000 hours as a multiplier for all of them isn’t as accurate as it could be – for example, Professional Services works 35.2 hours per week while Admin and Support only works 33 hours per week on average

main job categories in San Diego are:
Professional Services 23%
Government 16%
Health Care 12%
Finance / RE 8%
Construction 8%

I think this data supports what us engineers have always maintained (somewhat jokingly) – that is, without us engineers you bean-counters wouldn’t have jobs – when General Dynamics was leaving town people were saying that every engineering job lost took two lessor jobs with it

[img_assist|nid=12995|title=Average income by sector|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=389|height=273]

[img_assist|nid=12996|title=$ value of jobs lost by sector|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=400|height=348]

[img_assist|nid=12997|title=$ value of each sector|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=400|height=296]

This is a new idea for me so
This is a new idea for me so I haven’t fully worked through the details – bear with me

I’m wondering what, if any, fundamentally driven (ie, based on newly created long-term jobs) economic activity has occurred in San Diego since 1995 when General Dynamics left town

We were fortunate that Southern CA’s typical real estate cycle entered its upward leg at about the same time that GD was saying Goodbye

The real estate cycle provided lots of jobs for granite countertop installers, drywallers, escrow clerks, real estate agents and their assistants, etc – numerous people made money flipping properties – a few real estate developers cleaned up by building downtown condos, Petco park, Eastlake and all the developments in North County

But what fundamental economic activity is underlying all the real estate development that has occurred since 1995?

My concern in the current economic downturn is that not only do we have to deal with the aftermath of the biggest real estate bubble this planet has ever seen, but that we have yet to address or recover from the loss of the City’s largest employer – an employer that provided jobs that were predominately at the top of the job-food-chain (engineers)

Any thoughts?

yes, Qualcomm was a hot
yes, Qualcomm was a hot commodity for awhile – I forget whether CDMA was their technology or if they were pushing the rival technology – I don’t even know which of the two technologies has been adapted and become widespread – I haven’t noticed much about Qualcomm in the last few years – have they hired 15,000 engineers and technicians since 1995?

poking around the job-search websites, the only local company I see hiring engineers (or at least advertising for them) is Northrop Grumman and they are looking for people with security clearances and very specific skills

biotech is touted as San Diego’s hot industry from time-to-time – and then some of the biotech people on this board tell us what is really going on – most recent idea I have seen related to biotech is that these companies are primarily funded by venture capital – in the current economic climate, counting on venture capital might not be the wisest strategy

haven’t we had two hospitals close in the last few years? or was it only one? would hospitals be closing in a city with a robust, growing economy?

my concern is that we have had 15 years of real estate related financial machinations that have hidden the true state of San Diego’s economy – and that the real state of our economy is nowhere near as healthy as it might appear if you were only looking at ‘growth’ based on the number of new housing units built

“Hospitals closing has more
“Hospitals closing has more to do with a shift toward outpatient care than the economy.”

that seems reasonable – did all the people who lost jobs at the closed hospital(s) find work in outpatient clinics? or was there a net loss of jobs?

“hospitals would not close in
“hospitals would not close in a robust economy”

that is my point

in a robust economy I believe that one of the national hospital chains would have come in and bought out the hospitals that closed regardless of the trend from inpatient to outpatient treatment

given that none of the national chains saw profit potential in San Diego, we can then move on to the effect caused by the hospitals closing – ie, did we have a net gain / loss of jobs

perhaps I am mixing indicators a little bit – the underlying theme that I am trying to understand is the health of San Diego’s economy – there are numerous ways of looking at that theme – total # of jobs, major employers coming to town / leaving town / etc

~

so two people with jobs are doing home improvements – what does that tell us? – absolutely nothing – what might be interesting is these people’s assessment of the current state of QCOM and the biotech industry