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Sonoma State economist: Solano County shows job resilience, health care growth and mixed housing signals
Summary
Dr. Robert Eiler presented the 18th Solano County Index, reporting continued job growth and a healthcare‑led employment shift, marginal housing softness with rising affordability for renters, and mixed social‑equity indicators. Supervisors pressed him on manufacturing, workforce pipelines and infrastructure needs.
Dr. Robert Eiler, a professor and president of Economic Forensics and Analytics, presented the 18th annual Solano County Index to the Board of Supervisors on June 9, drawing on data through April 2026 and 2024 benchmark series. He said Solano’s recent job growth shows resilience and that healthcare and private education are the sectors most consistently adding positions.
Eiler highlighted several points for county policymakers: healthcare and life sciences are likely to be growth engines through the end of the decade, manufacturing and transportation show mixed trends, and the county’s population estimate dipped in 2025 while some cities such as Dixon and Suisun City recorded small increases. He called attention to a rise in personal income per person in 2024 and noted that median household income results can be volatile depending on five‑year averages.
Supervisors asked how the county should compete for manufacturing and data‑center investment, whether those jobs will provide family‑supporting wages, and how to align workforce training and higher‑education pipelines to meet employer needs. Eiler said health‑care jobs historically provide relatively higher wages and urged cross‑sector collaboration among higher education, health systems and economic‑development staff. He also encouraged the county to inventory infrastructure—water, power and broadband—to assess readiness for new industry.
On housing, Eiler described a slow, modest decline in prices with rising affordability for renters; building permits and housing unit production were steady at roughly 1,200 units in fiscal 2024–25. He warned that certain industries (e.g., wine) show regional headwinds that may depress some agricultural categories in coming years.
Supervisor discussion emphasized infrastructure studies, targeted workforce programs, and use of county and grant funds (e.g., SALT grant) to support industry attraction and supply‑chain integration. Eiler and the board agreed to follow up with more targeted data on income distribution and living‑wage calculations that supervisors requested.
Next steps: staff said the index will be published on the county website and that additional data—such as income distribution and living‑wage breakdowns by household type—will be provided to the board on request.
