Jobs in San Diego
San Diego, nicknamed the America's Finest City, with a population of about 3,053,800, rates highly as a place to live and work. San Diego and nearby suburbs have been selected as a business location by thousands of large and small companies that offer some exciting employment opportunities. Quite a few nationally-known companies have selected San Diego as a good place to do business. Many local government agencies as well as these private sector organizations are looking currently for new employees, or expect to in the future. Qualified job-seekers will probably have a number of job opportunities beckon. The next sections of this page present quite a bit of information about salaries and job opportunities in the city of San Diego itself, as well as the nearby towns. If you have questions concerning the job market and your earnings potential in San Diego, the following data should be of interest to you.
What can I expect to earn in San Diego? What are some of the jobs which have the highest salaries?
Its only natural, when you are thinking about job opportunities or where you should live and work, to be in need of information about salaries. Information about salaries can certainly contribute to deciding if moving to San Diego or changing jobs is the right move for you. Or it may be helpful to know the top-paying jobs here in San Diego and the surrounding area are. The good news is that information about salaries is accessible to anyone with computer access through a U.S. government Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website. Here is some information for 2008, from the BLS wage survey, pulled from the website database. Annual income in San Diego is on average, about $53,635. In the greater San Diego area, managers in all professions make about $112,140 per annum. Not everyone wants to be a manager; you might consider some of these jobs, that pay extremely well, and with over 10,000 people employed in each type of job shown.
| Job Title | Average Annual Income for Job |
Salary Range for Job 10th – 90th percentile |
| Registered nurses | $81,370 | $60,620 - $105,770 |
| Accountants and auditors | $70,160 | $43,020 - $102,770 |
| Elementary school teachers, except special education | $68,990 | $36,550 - $109,070 |
| Secondary school teachers, except special education | $66,880 | $37,370 - $100,630 |
| Business operations specialists, all other | $65,900 | $33,880 - $106,950 |
| First-line supervisors of administrative support workers | $53,990 | $33,920 - $79,480 |
| Executive secretaries and administrative assistants | $45,000 | $28,710 - $64,620 |
| First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers | $40,380 | $23,480 - $62,900 |
| Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks | $37,840 | $24,790 - $52,160 |
I'd like to know about the potential for growth in the number of jobs available… Which professions will have the most job openings in the near future?
If you’re like most people, you’re not only concerned about what a job pays, but that there will be more jobs available, not fewer, in the future in this career area. Perhaps you are curious about which companies are doing well and expanding their offices, operations, or production capabilities. Fortunately, this data has been compiled for you, and it's easy to access from any computer. There is a database on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website that you can query to get this kind of information. To give you an example of what you can learn, here are some jobs in San Diego that are forecast to have the largest increase in job openings in the future:
- Skin care specialists
- Occupational therapist assistants and aides
- Paralegals and legal assistants
- Occupational therapist aides
- Life scientists
- Medical scientists
- Compliance officers, except agriculture, construction, health and safety, and transportation
- Biochemists and biophysicists
- Financial examiners
- Home health aides
For more information about jobs in San Diego:
If you want information about annual salaries or potential job growth for some other jobs, go to the BLS website:
Also, here are some links to actual job openings available now in San Diego:
Want to learn more about getting a degree or professional training?
29.5% of the people who call San Diego home hold a baccalaureate degree, while only about 11.2% hold a M.S. or M.A. degree. Perhaps you are curious about which companies are doing well and expanding their offices, operations, or production capabilities. You'll find there are more options than ever before to earn a degree or a professional certification, to put you in position for a promotion, or an new and better job. Don't put your future on hold any longer - a better job at higher pay can be yours. To learn more, follow this link to your new future: California Online Schools