Daily Business Report-June 19, 2015
San Diego County Jobless Rate Inches Upward
Nonfarm employment up by 9,500 jobs over the month;
up by 42,400 over the year
The unemployment rate in the San Diego County was 4.9 percent in May, up from a revised 4.8 percent in April but below the year-ago estimate of 6.1 percent, the state Employment Development Department reported today.
California’s unemployment rate for the same period was 6.2 percent and the nation’s jobless rate was 5.3 percent, the department said.
Between April and May:
Total nonfarm employment increased from 1,379,200 to 1,388,700, a gain of 9,500 jobs. Agricultural employment added 200 jobs, or 1.9 percent.
• Leisure and hospitality reported the greatest month-over gain, adding 4,900 jobs. Accommodation and food services (up 3,600) accounted for more than 70 percent of the job growth in this sector, primarily from food services and drinking places (up 3,300). Arts, entertainment, and recreation gained 1,300 jobs.
• Seven other nonfarm sectors also added jobs over the month. The most significant employment gains came from construction (up 2,000), mainly from specialty trade contractors (up 1,100); and trade, transportation, and utilities (up 1,200), mostly from retail trade (up 1,000).
• Two sectors reported month-over job losses: financial activities (down 1,000) and information (down 100).
Between May 2014 and May 2015:
Total nonfarm employment increased by 42,400, or 3.1 percent. Agricultural employment added 700 jobs, or 6.9 percent.
• Professional and business services posted the greatest year-over gain, adding 11,000 jobs. Professional, scientific, and technical services (up 8,500) contributed to more than 75 percent of the job growth in this sector. Administrative and support and waste services added 1,900 jobs, primarily from employment services (up 1,200). Management of companies and enterprises added 600 jobs.
• Nine other nonfarm sectors also added jobs over the year. The most notable employment gains came from leisure and hospitality (up 8,500); educational and health services (up 6,800); construction (up 4,500); and trade, transportation, and utilities (up 4,100).
• All major sectors recorded year-over job growth except mining and logging, which posted no change in employment levels over the year.
Chargers Say San Diego Out of Time
For Deal If NFL Moves to Los Angeles
The best chance for San Diego to reach an agreement with the Chargers to keep the National Football League franchise in town will be for NFL owners to postpone a vote on whether to move a team to Los Angeles, Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani said Thursday.
Fabiani was interviewed on KPBS Radio one day after he and the Chargers were publicly taken to task by Mayor Kevin Faulconer, county Supervisor Ron Roberts and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith for rejecting a series of proposals on environmental studies.
Tuesday, the Chargers released a statement that said it would be impossible to put a legally defensible measure before voters under the city’s suggested timeline.
NFL owners are scheduled to meet in August, and could vote on a move anytime from then on. A team that wants to relocate needs affirmative votes from 24 of the 32 franchises.
“Obviously, we’re out of time for 2015, and if the NFL owners in their judgment decide to move ahead with Los Angeles in 2015, then no, it’s hard to see how anything can happen,” Fabiani said. “If, on the other hand, for whatever reason, a Los Angeles decision was delayed by NFL owners for another year — which is certainly possible, it may not be likely, but it’s certainly possible — then, of course, you have another year to work on it.”
The Chargers have been demanding a new playing facility for years to replace aging Qualcomm Stadium. At the same time, the NFL has been aiming to get a team back into the massive Los Angeles market as soon as the 2016 season.
Goldsmith, also interviewed on the radio station, accused the Chargers of using provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act as a “smokescreen” to hide a business decision to move north, where the franchise would become far more valuable. He said they’re replacing a stadium with a slightly smaller facility, so the impacts are already known.
“I don’t think we have a CEQA problem, I think we have a Chargers problem,” Goldsmith said. “And I respect the fact that the Spanos family gets to make a business decision. I don’t get to make that decision for them, , which the city and team would likely lose.
— City News Service
Seven San Diego Companies to Receive
$4.6M In State Credits for Creating Jobs
Seven additional San Diego businesses will receive more than $4.6 million in state credits for creating new jobs through the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), an office created by the Legislature.
The California Competes Tax Credit Committee announced that the seven businesses will create 717 new jobs.
The businesses are among 63 throughout the state that have received tax credits to expand and create jobs in California. Altogether, about $49.8 million in credits were awarded. Earlier this year, 18 San Diego area companies received $20.24 million in tax credits.
“The California Competes program rewards innovative businesses and, once again, San Diego wins,” said Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego). “These tax credits will create more than 700 good-paying middle class jobs throughout San Diego County and I’m glad to see that California is making strong investments in our community.”
The California Competes Tax Credit is an income tax credit available to businesses that want to come to California or stay and grow in California. The Cal Competes program is managed by GO-Biz.
Tax credit agreements are negotiated by GO-Biz and approved by the California Competes Tax Credit Committee. The amount of credits available will increase each year until 2018. Twenty-five percent of the credits are reserved for small businesses.
The seven San Diego Companies:
Ajinomoto Althea Inc.
Net Increase of Full-time Employees: 243
Investment: $46,820,751
Amount of Tax Credit: $2,000,000
Auriga Corporation
Net Increase of Full-time Employees: 17
Investment: $416,500
Amount of Tax Credit: $125,000
CyberBasket Inc.
Net Increase of Full-time Employees: 15
Investment: $2,510,000
Amount of Tax Credit: $250,000
IriSys LLC
Net Increase of Full-time Employees: 36
Investment: $3,100,000
Amount of Tax Credit: $100,000
Learning Evolution LLC
Net Increase of Full-time Employees: 9
Investment: $142,700
Amount of Tax Credit: $50,000
National Steel and Shipbuilding Company
Net Increase of Full-time Employees: 384
Investment: $100,300,000
Amount of Tax Credit: $2,000,000
WFW Industries LLC
Net Increase of Full-time Employees: 13
Investment: $2,000,000
Amount of Tax Credit: $130,000
USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of
Engineering Awarded $2 Million Grant
The Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering at the University of San Diego has been awarded a $2 million grant to revolutionize engineering education.
Under the five-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s “Revolutionizing Engineering Departments” (RED) project, the school will develop student engineers who are “changemakers” for social justice, economic development and sustainability on a global scale. The effort will build on the university’s designation as one of only 30 Ashoka U Changemaker campuses in the world and one of only two in California.
“This is an exciting opportunity to transform engineering education to meet the social, technological and environmental challenges of the 21st century,” said Chell Roberts, dean of the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering.
The school’s program will include efforts to attract more women and members of underrepresented groups to engineering, develop new courses tying technical concepts to global issues and change the culture of engineering education, at both the University of San Diego and nationally.
The Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering currently has nearly 500 students, including 28 percent who are women and 23 percent from underrepresented groups. Those percentages are higher than the national average and Roberts thinks the school can do even better. “Our goal is to increase women engineering students to 50 percent and significantly increase our population from underrepresented groups,” Roberts said.
Batu Biologics Closes $1 Million Seed
Round to Support Fight Against Cancer
San Diego-based Batu Biologics said it has successfully completed its $1 million seed round of funding, bringing the company one step closer in its efforts to battle lung cancer, the leading cancer killer in the United States. Batu leveraged primarily private and angel funding to attain the fundraising goal.
“The completion of this seed round of financing marks a critical inflection point in the development of our company and our lead program, ValloVax,” said Samuel C. Wagner, president and CEO. “Our strategy revolves around rapid clinical development, and we hope to soon realize the therapeutic potential of combining angiogenesis inhibition with the power of immunotherapy.”
ValloVax is a polyvalent cancer vaccine that stimulates an immune response against the tumor-associated blood vessels, seeking to cut off the blood supply required for sustainable tumor growth. In preclinical testing, ValloVax was shown to inhibit new blood vessel formation in melanoma, breast and lung cancer mouse models.
Batu Biologics recently filed an application with the FDA seeking to initiate a Phase I dose-escalation study for ValloVax in patients with non-small cell lung cancer
Junior Achievement to Induct 4 Visionary
Leaders to San Diego Business Hall of Fame
Junior Achievement of San Diego will induct four visionary leaders into the San Diego Business Hall of Fame on Sept. 15 at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar.
The 27th annual Business Hall of Fame recognizes outstanding business and philantrophic leadership over a career span of service in the San Diego community. The black-tie event will feature dinner, auction and awards presentation for the 2015 Hall of Fame laureates.
The 2015 Hall of Fame Laureates:
Rolf Benirschke, co-founder, Legacy Health Strategies and NFL Hall of Famer
Benirschke had an illustrious 10-year career as the placekicker for the San Diego Chargers before retiring as the third most accurate kicker in NFL history. During his second season, Rolf was struck with ulcerative colitis, an intestinal illness that required major abdominal surgery and nearly cost him his life. He returned to play for seven more seasons and created Great Comebacks, a patient support program that provides information and inspiration and has been connecting ostomy patients around the world for more than 30 years.
Tom Hom, civic leader, statesman and businessman
Hom, a second generation Chinese-American, was born in San Diego in 1927. In 1963 he made San Diego history by becoming the first minority ever elected to the San Diego City Council. In 1968 he won a seat to the California Assembly. As a successful civic, business, and community leader, Hom has become a legacy in San Diego. He was instrumental in the transformation of what was San Diego’s skid row into today’s historic Gaslamp Quarter — now a major destination. He also played a key role in the establishment of the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum.
Joanne Pastula, president & CEO, Junior Achievement of San Diego County
Pastula is the visionary who first brought awareness to the San Diego business community about the need to teach students how to get a job, how to start a business and how to manage money. Under Pastula’s leadership, JA of San Diego grew from a three-person staff and small budget to today’s financially strong operation. She led the organization through 16 years of growth, increasing its annual budget from $300,000 to almost $2 million, expanding the overall student participation from 15,000 students to 54,000 students that will be reached during the 2014-15 school year. She will retire this year.
T. Denny Sanford, businessman and philanthropist
After graduating from the University of Minnesota, Sanford proved to be a successful entrepreneur. His early career in Minneapolis was in sales, marketing and venture capital. Sanford has given over $1 billion to enhance people’s lives through his generous donations to health, education and children related causes. Over just the past four years, he has given more than $600 million, including the largest single donation to a health care organization, the Dakota-based Sioux Valley Health System, later renamed Sanford Health. In 2008, he provided $30 million to the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.
Navy Change of Command Ceremony
Navy Capt. Doug Stuffle will relieve Capt. Mark Howell as commander of the Navy Region Southwest Reserve Component Command in a ceremony aboard the USS MIDWAY museum June 23 at 10 a.m.
The Navy’s Southwest Region encompasses 19 Navy Operational Support Centers spread across seven states and the territory of Guam. More than half the sailors working out of these 19 centers are in California. The command is headquartered in San Diego.
Vice Adm.l Robin Braun, commander of the Navy Reserve, will be the guest speaker.
SDSU Student Chapter Named Among
Best in U.S. for 2nd Consecutive Year
For the second consecutive year, the San Diego State University chapter for the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) has been honored as one of the best student chapters in the United States.
Of the 450 SHRM student chapters, SDSU’s chapter was only one of a handful to have been recognized as an Outstanding Student Chapter. It is the second year in a row that the chapter has received this award in the category of programming and education and only the fourth year since the chapter’s founding in 2011.
One of the newer student groups affiliated with SDSU’s College of Business Administration, the chapter of SHRM was developed by a group of seven management students shortly after the college announced the creation of a human resources specialization for management majors. The chapter currently includes 56 members, making SHRM one of the largest student groups within the college.
“We are honored to be recognized once again by SHRM’s national organization as one of the most elite student chapters in the nation,” said Michelle Dean, SHRM’s faculty adviser and management professor. “The students have dedicated themselves to seeking out and creating their own educational and professional development opportunities to prepare themselves and their peers for their future careers in the field of human resources.”
The award will be presented to Dean and SHRM members on June 30 during the SHRM national annual meeting and exposition in Las Vegas.
Department of Agriculture Official
Tours San Diego 2-1-1 Call Center
Katie Wilson, deputy under secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, visited San Diego’s 2-1-1 call center on Wednesday, her first visit to a call center in the U.S.
During the call center tour, 2-1-1 client service representatives demonstrated the different ways San Diegans connect with 2-1-1, as well as how representatives help identify and address additional needs for support, above and beyond initial call requests.
2-1-1 San Diego is the region’s primary connection to community, health and disaster support services, 24-hours a day in more than 200 languages.
Wilson’s visit carried important significance on partnerships between federal and regional government agencies and local nonprofits, like 2-1-1, in making sure people have access to community support services, call center representative said. Seasonally, that includes ensuring low-income children continue to receive nutritious meals when not in school during summer months through the USDA Summer Food Service Program.
UC San Diego Extension Partners With
Sycuan and Viejas on College-Prep Offerings
UC San Diego Extension has partnered with the Sycuan Education Department and the Viejas Tribal Education Center to provide college preparatory programs to boost college enrollment among young adults in underrepresented communities.
The partnership is designed to enhance the programs that the tribal education centers already offer by providing middle and high school students the opportunity to explore the UC San Diego campus as well as attend UCSD Extension’s college-prep summer courses in Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii and Washington, D.C.
Councilman Gabriel T. TeSam of the Viejas Tribe said both tribes are working on a strategic plan to help Native American students enter college and graduate school, and this partnership will go a long way to further its goals of increasing college enrollment in his tribe.
“We are trying to create a college-going culture. This new partnership will help our students not only see the opportunities that college affords but also help them seize those opportunities,” said TeSam. “UC San Diego Extension worked closely with us to ensure the programs matched the needs of our students and our community.”
Nubia Ford, director of the Sycuan Education Department, said a college education will help prepare the students she works with for leadership opportunities now and in the future.
On June 21, Viejas and Sycuan will send eight students to Arizona to take part in the Biosphere 2 program, which teaches about the effects of climate change through hands-on learning and experiments. Going forward, all the high school students will have the opportunity to attend one of the summer programs depending on their grade level. UC San Diego Extension will also offer prep classes for college entrance exams such as the SAT and ACT.
