San Diego-Area unemployment rises to nearly 25%

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The San Diego region's estimated unemployment rate has risen to nearly 25% -- and it will get worse as the coronavirus pandemic drags on, according to the San Diego Association of Governments.

SANDAG's latest data only accounts for the period between April 11-18, where unemployment numbers increased from 20.6% to 24.7%.

The numbers "are expected to continue to rise for the next few weeks,'' the report's authors said.

The San Diego region now has 430,000 people out of work, more than 360,000 of whom lost employment after March 7 -- the date public health officials are saying the health crisis began locally.

The news is bad all over, but a few ZIP codes are seeing a larger impact. Logan Heights leads the county in unemployment, with a whopping 34.8% of residents out of work. National City, the College area and San Ysidro all have more than 30% unemployment and Golden Hill and City Heights each have more than 29% unemployed.

"These all have a combined total of 50,000 unemployed residents -- nearly as many unemployed residents the entire county of San Diego had just six weeks ago,'' the report said.

On March 7, the unemployment rate in the county was just 3.4%. The industries most severely impacted by COVID-19 and various stay-at-home and social distancing orders associated with it include ones in which close contact is required, such as hotel, restaurant, personal care, transportation and entertainment jobs.

ZIP codes with a higher percentage of office workers who can work from home are less severely impacted by unemployment. Some of these areas include West Rancho Bernardo, Eastlake, Carmel Valley, Del Mar, and Scripps Ranch -- all of which have less than 20% unemployment.