August 26, 2021

In July, San Diego’s unemployment rate clocked in at 6.9 percent, highlighting the frustrating question around why it’s been so hard to fill local job vacancies. The well-documented reasons for people not returning to the workforce, including childcare, extra unemployment benefits, and safety concerns as COVID cases rise, haven’t been able to result in meaningful policy changes to motivate people to come back to work. San Diego’s unemployment rate was slightly higher than the nationwide number, which was 5.7 percent. For context, in July of 2020, the San Diego unemployment rate was 12.3 percent.