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City receives draft economic strategy: focus on knowledge industries, visitor economy and workforce links
Summary
City staff and consultants presented a draft economic development plan to the Board of Supervisors calling for strategies to retain and grow knowledge-sector firms, upgrade visitor-economy jobs, and better align workforce training with industry demand.
San Francisco — City staff and consultants on Dec. 5 presented a draft economic development strategy to the Board of Supervisors, identifying strategic priorities intended to guide long-term job growth, fiscal stability and inclusive opportunity.
The presentation, led by consultant Ted Egan of ICF and staff from the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, followed an earlier economic performance review. Egan said the city’s export base rests on two key pillars: a knowledge-generating sector (financial, professional, media and technology services) and an experience-generating sector (tourism and visitor-related services). He said those export activities support local industries that build and maintain the city’s physical and human infrastructure.
To move the economy toward the goals set out in Proposition I and the earlier performance review, Egan said the draft plan identifies four strategic priorities: (1) sustain and diversify knowledge-sector growth and entrepreneurship and retain firms in San Francisco as they scale; (2) increase the value of the visitor economy while upgrading job quality within that sector; (3) strengthen middle-income job opportunities in construction, manufacturing and transportation and improve linkages between these sectors and the city’s export base; and (4) develop workforce strategies that align training and placement with industry demand, particularly for residents without four-year degrees.
Rhonda Simmons, newly hired director of workforce development, said her work will focus on sector-based workforce strategies and on aligning city training resources with high-impact industries identified in the plan. Board members asked for further analysis of tax-structure assumptions, the effects of outsourcing and regional competition within the Bay Area. Egan said the economic impacts reported in the draft assume the current tax structure and that follow-up work will identify policy levers, barriers to growth and specific actions the city can take to retain and attract target industries.
Supervisors encouraged deeper committee-level engagement; several recommended the Land Use and Economic Development Committee as a venue for extended review. Staff said they will continue outreach, refine findings, and return with a final plan for board endorsement.
