The gold rush isn’t really over in California. New businesses and job seekers continue to head west to live along the Pacific Coast. But the state’s sunny climate and mix of ocean views, mountains and deserts is only part of the draw. The defense job market also looks good – and to recruiters in this industry, so do security-cleared professionals.

A study released by the California Space Authority in April 2009, shows California leading the nation and the world in space-related economic contributions. According to the organization’s executive director, Andrea Seastrand, California accounts for 44 percent of the nation’s space market, 21 percent of the global market, and contributes more than $76 billion in total economic impact. Job seekers may be just as interested in the fact that the state’s partnership with the military serves as the bedrock of California’s space industry, which has led to more than 370,000 jobs.

The wealth of opportunities runs wide for security-cleared job seekers. Three of the 10 NASA centers are based in California, and the state’s public and private universities have heavy concentrations of engineering and research personnel, as they frequently partner with the Department of Defense and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. With 2010 earnings totaling $98,968, California-based security-cleared professionals top the list as the highest-earning geography, according to the ClearanceJobs 2010 Compensation Survey. Up and down the coastline, high-paying opportunities abound.

San Diego
Boasting the largest concentration of military activity in the nation, San Diego is home to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, which alone, brings in more than $1 billion in salaries and contracts. North Island Naval Complex and Naval Station San Diego are also on the area’s military installation map, all of which work to lengthen the list of employers looking for transitioning service members with three distinctive assets – their service, their skills, and most of all, their security clearances.

Throughout San Diego, the aerospace industry is thriving, with major employers that include Goodrich Aerostructures, SAIC and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. Manufacturing opportunities continue to proliferate in ship building, satellite communications systems, electronics, robotics, propulsion systems and computers designed for use by the military. To fill the demand for workers, Computer Sciences Corporation, Northrop Grumman, Wallach, Boeing, Raytheon, Hewlett Packard and Epsilon Systems all actively recruit from the pool of security-cleared candidates.

According to Jo Marie Diamond, Operations Director for DEFCOMM, a defense and space technology consortium, “San Diego definitely holds opportunities for security-cleared personnel in non-uniform positions at our military installations, as well as within business and government agencies tied to defense activities in aerospace, technology, manufacturing, production and management.”

While the big story for security-cleared job seekers may be the employment opportunities, the city has been in the spotlight more for its troubled housing market. San Diego was ground zero for the disastrous subprime mortgages that resulted in a massive drop in home prices and foreclosures. Even as recently as January through June of 2009, there were more than 30,000 foreclosures. But there are whispers of recovery and housing prices have started to inch back up. Currently, listing prices are running between $275,000 and $300,000, way below their numbers a few years ago. Other perks? San Diego has a low crime rate and according to a report by Northwestern National Life, it ranks in the top three cities in America for quality and cost of health care.

Los Angeles
Los Angeles doesn’t have the wealth of military installations that San Diego boasts, but it does host Los Angeles Air Force Base, home of Space and Missile Systems Center, along with Edwards Air Force Base and NASA’s Dryden Research Center nearby. The relationship between private sector businesses and the defense community continues to offer a diverse collection of job opportunities in the defense and aerospace industries.

City, county and federal government agencies continue to rank at the top of the list of Los Angeles’ largest employers, and those that deal with network administration and security and homeland security often look for security-cleared personnel. Other private-sector companies like Boeing and Northrop Grumman also remain on the list of L.A.’s biggest employers and actively seek out candidates with a clearance. Northrop Grumman’s recent decision to move its headquarters to Washington, D.C. may see some jobs leaving the area, but the company is continuing to hire in the region.

According to the Aerospace Industries Association, opportunities for security-cleared personnel look good for 2010. Boeing, for example, the world’s largest aerospace company and a major contributor to the area’s aerospace industry, provides jobs for more than 15,000 workers in Los Angeles County and an additional 14,000 throughout the state.

Sitting on the perimeter of Los Angeles, the small city of El Segundo is a hotbed of defense activity. The five-square-mile community is dubbed the Aerospace Capital of the World, home to major defense employers past and present like Computer Sciences Corporation, Raytheon, Douglas Aircraft, Hughes Aircraft, Boeing and Northrop Grumman. Other nearby communities are also emerging as hubs for defense jobs requiring a clearance.

“Cleared, transitioning service members may want to look at opportunities in Redondo Beach and Palmdale, home to Plant 42, which houses Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s advanced research development facilities,” said Jack Kyser, Founding Economist, Kyser Center for Economic Research. “These communities in and around Los Angeles focus on defense research, aerospace and related technologies.”

Opportunities that require a security clearance include positions in research and development, aircraft and aerospace engineering, program and logistics management and systems and software engineering.

In its forecast for 2010, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation anticipates an increase in federal purchases due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This will positively affect companies doing business in defense-related manufacturing and technology, particularly those related to satellite technology.

Despite some of the downturns elsewhere in the state’s business community, the lure of a security clearance hasn’t lost its draw. According to Evan Lesser, founder and director of ClearanceJobs.com, Los Angeles and neighboring towns like El Segundo to the south, and Azusa to the north, are hotbeds of activity for cleared aerospace professionals. “Known defense giants like Northrop Grumman have had a long-term established presence in Azusa. Most of the open jobs are for security-cleared systems engineers, but support staff roles always follow close behind. Heading down to El Segundo, Raytheon dominates and we see regular clearance jobs for everything from logistics professionals, finance analysts, QA leads, and network administrators. There’s always demand.”

Los Angeles frequently gets low marks for its air quality and housing prices that hover close to $400,000. But on the up side, there are still good deals to be found throughout the L.A. suburbs, along with miles of beaches, sea side resorts, hiking trails, parks and architectural landmarks. Known most as the nation’s entertainment capitol, Los Angeles still casts a heavy spotlight on job opportunities for cleared personnel, particularly those with technical skills and a military background.