San Diego County’s job market tightened in April, with employers adding about 7,200 positions and nudging the local unemployment rate down to 4.1 percent. Total nonfarm employment climbed to roughly 1,580,200, snapping out of a brief spring slowdown. The new hires were heavily concentrated in government and service-sector roles, even as a few industries quietly cut staff.
The month-to-month jump shows up clearly in the state’s April county labor report. Total nonfarm employment rose from 1,573,000 in March to 1,580,200 in April, and the county unemployment rate slipped from 4.3 percent to 4.1 percent, according to the Employment Development Department. The same release pegs California’s overall unemployment at 5.3 percent in April, which keeps San Diego a step ahead of the statewide rate.
Where the Gains Came From
Local reporting breaks down which paychecks are being written and where. Government led the pack for April, tacking on about 2,000 jobs in total, including 1,400 in state government and 800 in local government, while federal payrolls slipped by roughly 200 positions, as reported by KPBS. Leisure and hospitality chipped in around 1,900 jobs for the month, and more than 80 percent of that bump came from accommodation and food services.
Year-Over-Year Trends
Zooming out to the past 12 months, the picture gets more complicated. From April 2025 to April 2026, San Diego added roughly 10,000 nonfarm jobs overall. The clear standout was private education and health services, which grew by about 16,400 jobs, with health care and social assistance alone accounting for roughly 16,100 of those positions, according to the Employment Development Department. At the same time, six sectors together shed about 15,900 jobs year over year, and the government took the biggest hit, losing about 7,900 positions, most of them in federal employment, which was down about 7,300.
What This Means For San Diegans
Put together, the numbers tell a mixed story. Hiring is running strongest in health care and hospitality, while federal cutbacks and weakness in construction and finance are weighing on the annual totals. For local employers, job seekers, and workforce programs, the key question is whether these monthly gains will translate into more stable, higher-paying roles, a trend already flagged in coverage by KPBS.
National Comparison
On the national stage, the labor market is also tight. The U.S. unemployment rate stood at about 4.3 percent in April 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which leaves San Diego roughly in line with or slightly better than national readings, depending on the series you look at. Economists note that county-level figures often move differently from the national data, thanks to local hiring cycles and shifts in federal payrolls that can hit regions unevenly.
