What Jobs Will San Joaquin Valley Employers Need the Most? EDD Publishes its List

In honor of the Labor Day holiday, the California Employment Development Department published its list of top jobs they predict each of the state’s 15 regions will need through 2030.

Researchers broke the list down into entry-level, middle-skill, and high-skill occupations with the wages the positions will earn.

While the future calls for more health care workers and transportation workers, it may come as little surprise it will be farmworkers and laborers the San Joaquin Valley will need the most.

In the graphs below, the number of “job ads” reflect data points used by the EDD to calculate projected job totals.

Valley’s Health Care Needs Apparent. Farm Labor Needed Most

When it comes to entry level jobs, the region is predicted to need more than 230,000 farm laborers to work the crops, nurseries, and greenhouses in the coming years. The EDD pegs median annual wages for those jobs at $34,765.

Farmers for years have talked about the need for more labor. Tech developers have come out with automated sprayers, planters, and in some cases harvesters to fill the gaps left by a diminishing ag work force. But many often say automation will only help supplement the labor pool, making jobs easier.

Behind farmworkers, the San Joaquin Valley will need 110,000 home health care workers. Experts have said the country’s aging population is projected to create a growing demand for health care workers.

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That need extends to middle-skilled occupations where medical assistants and nursing assistants are together expected to need more than 30,000 workers.

The biggest middle-skill job, though? Truck drivers. The region will need almost 50,000 drivers. Those drivers are expected to earn the highest on the list, making nearly $56,000 a year.

For the region’s highest skilled jobs, the greatest need will be for managers and registered nurses. At 20,790 jobs each, both occupations are expected to earn more than $100,000 a year, with nurses’ pay exceeding $130,000.

At the statewide level, it’ll be software developers who are needed the most with more than a quarter million jobs to fill in the coming years.