September 29, 2016
What San Diego lacks in affordability, it makes up for in standard of living. A new dashboard released by the Chamber and sponsored by Bank of America as part of the Regional Jobs Strategy puts San Diego in the top tier for overall standard of living behind competitor metropolitans San Jose and Austin.
“We have a natural advantage when it comes to standard of living – it’s what makes San Diego a great place for business. However, to reach our goal of becoming the best place to do business, we need to work on the policies, taxes, and regulations that impact our region’s affordability and business climate. The good news is those are areas we can change.”
Jerry Sanders, Chamber President and CEO
The dashboard compares 10 metros in the areas of recreation and weather (parks, bike lanes, walkability, weather); health and safety (obesity and crime); and opportunity (unemployment, poverty, and upward mobility). In the recreation category San Diego excels, ranking first with the most parks and second for weather. The region came in behind only San Francisco for the fewest days of extreme temperature: or days when the high was 90 degrees or higher, or the low was 32 or lower.
One area where San Diego falls short is the opportunity metric of unemployment. The region has the third highest unemployment rate at 5.2 percent, just under the national rate of 5.3 percent. This is substantially lower than the California rate of 6.2 percent and among competitor metros in this study, Los Angeles has the highest rate of unemployment.
Where San Diego leads in opportunity is upward mobility. San Diego lands in the top tier for that category, which measures the ability for people to change their social and economic status.