The South Central Coast Center of Excellence for Labor Market Research (SCC COE) released five sector analysis reports and a Regional Investment Framework that examine labor market and workforce challenges, opportunities, and recommendations for emerging sectors in the region. The Aerospace & Defense, Clean Economy, High-Tech, Life Sciences, and Working Lands & Water sectors provide a detailed analysis of critical investment opportunities due to these sectors’ alignment with regional and statewide goals related to resilience, sustainability, long-term economic growth, job quality, and workforce mobility.

Insights from an analysis of traditional labor market research, employer surveys, and interviews with industry experts include:

• Employers in the SCC region cite rising operating costs, rapid technological change, and talent attraction and retention as their most pressing challenges. 
• Despite these headwinds, SCC employers in priority sectors anticipate employment growth over the next 12 to 36 months. 
• Nearly two in five (38%) surveyed SCC employers cite workforce attraction and retention as their most pressing challenge, driven by regional affordability issues.
• AI, automation, policy shifts, and evolving supply chains are driving significant skills change across occupations, underscoring the need for industry-aligned curricula supporting foundational job readiness skills and transferable skills that allow jobseekers to access career pathways and lattices to higher-wage opportunities.
• Approximately 90% of SCC employers expressed interest in partnerships to support work-based learning and/or job readiness programs, yet less than half (48%) currently partner with community colleges.

Regional community colleges can address workforce needs by strengthening regional coordination to build shared talent pipelines, investing in training programs that build cross-cutting skills and support emerging technologies, and expanding access to opportunity through targeted support for underserved populations to strengthen access to higher-wage career pathways. 

All sector profiles, slide decks, and snapshots are now available on the COE website.