The city of National City on Monday offered a virtual roundtable-style event for residents seeking employment opportunities that also financially benefit the area as it emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic and looks to future development.
National City economic development specialist Megan Gamwell said the two-hour session was dedicated to “talking about all the opportunities we have right here in National City as we come out of this pandemic” before introducing Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, who painted an optimistic vision of a balanced work-life community.
”We know that Covid-19 has impacted so many different sectors. Our vision is a city where residents can walk or roll, bike to work or school … a community rich in human resources. This is not a job fair but this is an awareness campaign,” Sotelo-Solis said.
The event was split into three sections: a presentation by San Diego Association of Governments senior economist Stephanie Guichard on American employment and income statistics relative to the recession years of 2008-2009; a presentation from manufacturing sector representatives on current job openings and how their companies feed directly into the local economy; and information from representatives in the education sector on how their low-cost and free programs can benefit National City residents position themselves for better job opportunities.
Ninety-one percent of job loss is tied to tourism, retail and education, said Guichard, who clarified, “it isn’t the teachers, it’s aides and staff who work physically at schools who have been furloughed.”
Furthermore, typical employees in the tourism, retail and education fields are female, Guichard said. In both tourism and retail they are aged 16 to 24; in total, she said, 81 percent of job loss has affected women.
However, she also reported the key jobs fields in National City according to pre-COVID data are retail, Department of Defense, healthcare, manufacturing and food services, providing a segway for representatives from the marine industry to discuss how they not only have positions available in fields that remain relatively unscathed by the pandemic but also benefit the local economy.
NASSCO Manager of Communications and Strategic Outreach Anthony Paolino said the company, part of a larger marine group and headquartered in San Diego, has to “continue to meet what we have to do for our Navy partners” and fulfill contracts regardless of the pandemic.
Marine Group Boat Works Director of Communications and Sales Leah Yam said their company is a small one where “you can be fresh out of high school and have really great opportunities” with an average company salary of $25 hourly.
“For every dollar spent on yacht repair, $7 goes back into the local economy. I think the message we’re trying to share here today is there are high-paying jobs that do not require a college degree and they feed right back into our economy. There’s hope,” Yam said.
University of California San Diego Extension Assistant Dean of Education and Community Outreach Morgan Appel turned attendees’ attention to opportunities through University of California Television.
That site is: www.uctv.tv/education and a similarly structured CareerChannel is also available to help bridge to areas of better employment at www.uctv.tv/careers.
