The Orange County Center of Excellence for Labor Market Research (OC COE) has released its 2026 Labor Market Overview (LMO), a comprehensive analysis of Orange County’s workforce landscape designed to support curriculum alignment, program planning, and strategic decision-making across the region’s nine community colleges. The report examines Orange County’s economy through ten thematic modules — covering the regional profile, cost of living, economic forecast, labor market methodology, sector demand, community college alignment, and occupational implications — and serves as a foundational reference for OC COE’s ongoing research and publications.

A critical finding from the 2026 edition centers on affordability and wage alignment: the MIT living wage for Orange County rose 54% between 2023 and 2026 — from $23.66 to $36.53 per hour — effectively reducing the pool of qualifying occupations by 51% under OC COE’s methodology. Only Information & Communication Technologies and Advanced Manufacturing clear the MIT living wage threshold among the region’s 12 sectors.

The report identifies a regional labor gap of more than 52,000 positions annually, with the health sector posting the largest absolute shortfall. Of 243 qualified occupations, 85 are middle-skilled and easily attainable via community college pathways, with Advanced Transportation & Logistics, Public Safety, and Health emerging as the most community college-aligned sectors.

The 2026 LMO was formally presented at a regional webinar release on May 21, 2026, drawing engagement from faculty, workforce board partners, and industry representatives across Orange County. The report, presentation recording, and deck are available now through the OC COE collection webpage.