The Central Valley/Mother Lode Center of Excellence (CVML COE) is pleased to announce the release of its 2026 subregional reports, providing comprehensive labor market analysis and postsecondary education award information for both the North and South Central Valley/Mother Lode regions. These reports examine middle-skill workforce trends across ten industry sectors, integrating labor market demand, wage data, job postings, and postsecondary education supply to better understand regional workforce alignment. By combining K-12 demographic insights and community college graduation data, the reports show the current and projected state of the CVML labor market, the composition of the future workforce, and the ways the community college system is preparing them to meet the demands of the future.

Key findings highlight significant unmet workforce demands across the region, with over 97,000 combined annual job openings projected and only 23,600 trained graduates exiting the community college system and entering the workforce. These reports drive data-informed decision-making for those interested in strengthening career education programs across the Central Valley/Mother Lode region.

Readers can access the report for North Central Valley/Mother Lode here and the report for the South Central Valley/Mother Lode here.

To stay informed about the CVML COE’s work, readers are encouraged to explore CVML COE news posts and subscribe to quarterly newsletters.