Hiring Is Strong in Some San Diego Industries

Although hiring is becoming increasingly larger in some San Diego industries, many of these positions require high skills or offer low pay, which leaves little room for the average person who just needs a job.

Jobs like a 3-D game designer are still being offered in the San Diego County despite the high unemployment rate. In this county alone, 17,300 new positions were created within the past year. Any hiring is good right now, as the 152,700 unemployed San Diegans will tell you. The bad economy has taken hold for the past four years and many are ready to claim it back.

“Many companies are seeing that the worst is behind them and that maybe it’s replace the programmer they laid off two years ago,” said Phil Blair, who oversees regional operations for the employment agency Manpower Inc. “Or they feel it’s time to rebuild their team after overworking the employees they already have.”

The best areas to find a job include:

Software, Internet and wireless: Around 4,000 help-wanted postings for these types of positions are posted in the San Diego County, according to the state Employment Development Department. A strong demand in tech skills is taking hold of local employment agencies.

“It’s kind of surprising, but this has been a really good year for us,” said Kanani Masterson at the TriStaff employment agency, which specializes in placements for high-tech jobs. “Anything related to software, Web development or mobile phone technology is doing really well.”

Within the last month, 317 openings in San Diego have been listed by Qualcomm. These include smartphone architects, camera-tuning technicians and Android engineers, according to an EDD list of the top 10 local employers.

“Anyone involved in Android development can pretty much name their price,” Masterson said. “You can’t really find a lot of developers here because so many have been recruited up to the Bay Area, where there’s crazy competition for engineers.”

Military contracting: “Northrop Grumman had 136 local postings last month, according to the EDD, including product trainer, cost analyst, simulation developer and composites structural analysis engineer. General Atomics, developer of the Predator drone, currently lists 91 jobs for machinists, designers, electricians and engineers.”

Health care: This particular field has been stable for the most part and has added nearly 5,000 jobs in the San Diego County within the past year. Kaiser Permanente had 172 postings last month include intern pharmacist, business analyst, lifestyle educator, child psychologist and emergency room nurse. Sharp HealthCare had 153 openings, ranging from clinical lab scientists to customer service representatives. Other health systems, including Palomar Pomerado Health and Rady Children’s Hospital, also are looking for workers.

Retail: Temporary retail jobs are becoming available now that the holiday season is here. According to the EDD, there were 923 openings for retail clerks last month and 774 postings for retail managers.

The major problem with the job market is that most new positions require applicants to be highly skilled, “well-educated workers for salaries of $100 or more an hour or are in the low-skilled retail and hospitality sectors that often pay $10 or less an hour.”