Why franchise in San Diego?
Be part of region focused on encouraging innovation
With famously good weather and year-round sun, it’s no wonder that San Diego is such an attractive place to live. Sunny days mean more time for hiking, swimming, music festivals, and exploring the city’s more than 50 parks. Add in world-class museums, art galleries, and cultural institutions, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a reason to leave.
For new business owners, San Diego has launched several economic development programs designed to ensure an inviting business climate. Plus, a vast network of higher education institutions mean that San Diego’s well-educated workforce is always growing—and always looking for their next big career move.
Top employers in San Diego:
- Pulse Electronics
- Qualcomm
- Sony
- US Navy
- University of California, San Diego
San Diego business highlights
Forbes’ Best Place to Launch a Startup
715,998+ person workforce
24+ colleges and universities
5 Fortune 1,000 headquarters
Among National Geographic’s “World Smart Cities”
Support & Training
Our support is our signature: Our owner community across the country is collaborative, supportive, and helpful. Spherion franchisees include multigenerational groups, husband-wife teams, former Spherion corporate employees, former franchise employees, and entrepreneurs from all walks of life. A clear supermajority (98%) agree that Spherion's training is good or better, while 100% agree that their fellow franchisees are supportive of each other and the Spherion brnad.**
You'll receive 380+ hours of comprehensive role-based training before and after opening. Periodic training addresses client development, legal requirements, marketing, and sales. You'll be supported by a dedicated portfolio leader who is available to answer questions and strategize with you, as well as by a national marketing team.
Spherion owners receive complete back office and technology support for all functions related to their temporary employees. We process employee payroll, including taxes, insurance, and benefits required by law. We invoice the clients, manage collections and application of payments as well as the W-2 process at the end of the year. Our corporate office maintains, supports, and troubleshoots all technology, eliminating the need for technical expertise and investment. Spherion's model allows you to focus on the business, not get lost in the business.
Our franchisees enjoy a full range of sales and marketing tools to help promote their business, including digital marketing, SEO & SEM support; sales collateral; print, radio, billboard, and online advertising; social media content; target account programs; direct mail campaigns; salary data; thought leadership research; and community giveback programs.
You'll enroll in our New Franchisee Launch program, a comprehensive training course that covers all aspects of opening a successful Spherion office. Plus, you'll receive ongoing support from a tenured team of professionals—from accounting, payroll, and technology to operations and marketing.
Competition
While competition exists in San Diego's staffing industry, most staffing firms maintain single-digit market shares, leaving ample opportunity for a new Spherion franchise to establish strong client relationships. Staffing vendors play a critical role in supporting local businesses, with most companies utilizing multiple staffing suppliers to meet their workforce needs.
The San Diego-Carlsbad metro is home to more than 31,390 temp employees. The metro area supports a staffing market valued at $3.02 billion with an estimated total payroll of $2.3 billion. There is room for growth and for stealing market share.
Staffing Industry Analysts predicts the US staffing industry will grow by 5% in 2025 to reach $198.3 billion. This growth will be powered by lower inflation and interest rates that allow businesses to accelerate their growth compared to previous years. Regardless of economic conditions, the need for temporary employees to fill skills gaps and for permanent workers to fulfill longer-term business goals will remain stable.
Growth & Expansion Opportunity
This sizeable territory offers abundant opportunities with a working population of approximately 1.5 million across the San Diego-Carlsbad MSA. San Diego has experienced robust economic growth over the years. The city's diverse economy includes sectors such as technology, biotech, defense, healthcare, tourism, and manufacturing. This economic diversity provides a resilient environment for businesses like staffing agencies to thrive.
San Diego offers a comprehensive network of business support services, including networking events, workshops, and resources provided by organizations like the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and CONNECT. These services can help entrepreneurs establish, connect, learn, and grow their staffing business. San Diego has a strong innovation ecosystem, and businesses often prioritize partnerships with local service providers. The presence of prestigious universities like UC San Diego, San Diego State University, and University of San Diego contributes to a highly skilled and educated workforce.
California's coastal economy has shown remarkable resilience and diversity, fueling consistent job growth in the San Diego region. The county's unemployment rate was 3.9% as of late 2024, near the state average. San Diego is home to over 1.5 million workers with a median age of 36.4 years. Anchored by strong military presence and growing tech sectors, San Diego ranked among the top metropolitan areas nationally for both talent attraction and business formation in 2023. The region's leading skilled professions span technology sectors like wireless communications and biotechnology, as well as established industries including healthcare, defense contracting, and tourism. In the 2023-2024 academic year, colleges and universities in the San Diego region produced over 25,000 new graduates, creating a continuous pipeline of fresh talent for staffing agencies to connect with local employers.
Spherion offers dedicated support from franchise leadership to help business owners develop and execute a strategic plan that balances existing account management with growth strategies to expand the staffing franchise's footprint and achieve ownership goals.
Become a Spherion Business Owner.
When you're ready to start your franchising journey with Spherion, text, call, or email Dan to ask how you can become part of our franchise community.

Dan Brunell
Regional Vice President of Franchise Development
Dan’s background as a senior executive in the staffing industry and founder of a top franchise brokerage equips him with more than 30 years of experience helping prospective franchisees succeed.
This website and the franchise sales information on this website do not constitute an offer to sell a franchise. The offer of a franchise can only be made through the delivery of a franchise disclosure document. Certain states require that we register the franchise disclosure document in those states. The communications on this website are not directed by us to the residents of any of those states. Moreover, we will not offer or sell franchises in those states until we have registered the franchise (or obtained an applicable exemption from registration) and delivered the franchise disclosure document to the prospective franchisee in compliance with applicable law.
*This data is based on 67 franchisees that were open and operating their businesses for at least one full year as of 12/31/23. Of these 67 franchisees, 18 of them (26.9%) surpassed the average annual sales stated above, and 18 of them (26.9%) surpassed the average annual gross profit stated above. Some outlets have earned these amounts. Your individual results may differ. There is no assurance that you’ll earn as much. Please review Item 19 of our April 29, 2024 FDD for more information.
**Franchise Business Review survey, December 2024