Written by Nicholas Vetrisek
Unemployment is at an all time high in San Diego County. In some areas of the county, it has reached over 30% and the county’s overall unemployment rate is 28.7%, according to a recent SANDAG report.
SANDAG also mentioned that even though unemployment numbers will rise again in coming weeks, they expect the easing of regulations on businesses to begin allowing more people to return to work. “For the local economy to take a turn for the better, the region must move through phase 2, and into phase 3 of the Governor’s roadmap,” SANDAG’s report stated.
San Diego now has nearly half a million unemployed residents. If 30% sounds awful, it should be known that in central and south San Diego, the unemployment rate is 35.4%. Zip codes with unemployment rates exceeding 30% include:
- 92054 (Oceanside S): 32.5%
- 92096 (CSUSM): 32.0%
- 92081 (Vista S): 31.4%
- 92025 (Escondido S): 31.1%
- 92083 (Vista W): 30.7%
- 92056 (Oceanside E): 30.3%
- 92069 (San Marcos N): 30.3%
- 92010 (Carlsbad NE): 30.0%
The stay at home order needs to be lifted and people have to be able to work again. Bureaucrats need to realize that banning people who disagree with the lockdown and creating an endless stream of “#ThankYouFirstResponders” slogans aren’t going to do anything when people can’t even put food on their table.
There’s no end in sight for the crisis, so what happens when unemployment reaches 40%? 50%? Prolonging the order is only going to make matters worse because if the city does reopen in a few months, it won’t matter if there are people willing to work. Anyone that could have given them jobs will have already gone out of business.
