Daniela disarms the world with a shy smile. She’s sweet and wistful for a little teenage workaholic.
When I first met her, she worked a fast-food night job after attending morning trade school. She detailed cars on the weekend and during every other spare hour. Why she didn’t fall over from exhaustion, I’ll never know.
Evelyn of the long hair had a different part-time chamba. She did nails. Had quite the customer list for a 17-year-old making money after class.
Stoic Jose, meanwhile, headed off from campus daily to work a couple of taco trucks for his dad.
Another young woman, Andrea, takes shifts at a Mexican restaurant when not studying for a day job in the medical field.
This is common in Santa Maria. Here, everyone has a side gig.
Or two.
Sometimes, even three.
Even when going to school fulltime. Even when already having a steady day job.
Santa Maria, with its 112,000-plus people, isn’t called the “hardest-working city” on the Central Coast for nothing.
Here, the jale never stops. Hustle is the name of the game.
It’s a youthful city, too. A third of the residents are 19 years or under, full of energy and vigor. They’re hungry for a way forward and a work-life balance they may never see.
As a former business instructor, I love that they aren’t waiting to be handed some kind of pathway but are trying to build their own. I commend their scrappiness, their drive, their survivor mentally, their pragmatic flexibility, and their organic and cool undercover entrepreneurism.
Listening to them describe their bit of hard-earned success is like chocoflan con café on a cool morning. A small victory, sweet and inspiring.
But I also worry. Worry that it isn’t enough. Guessing it isn’t.
Groceries are expensive. Gas is expensive. Rent is expensive. Buying a house is even more expensive. Mental health is expensive but priceless.
Still, I thank goodness for the part-time, often under-the-radar, work, because lately, good entry-level jobs are getting hard to come by everywhere.
Even in northern Santa Barbara County, where a triumvirate of agriculture, defense, and construction — along with big employers in education, medicine, and government — keep the economy humming, people feel the lack of opportunity.
Ask anyone on the street, and they will agree. A new office worker I spoke with said she had been looking for a decent job since December. She encountered many ghost job listings (fakes) disliked having to submit dozens of applications for a single offer or interview. It was depressing and disheartening.
Nationally, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times recently published stories describing the worst hiring season since the pandemic. ZipRecruiter data showed a stalled labor market for much of last year as well as up to this point in 2026 with more job seekers competing for fewer entry-level positions available.
The local EDD office reports only 4.7% unemployment in Santa Barbara County, but it’s 5.7% for young people age 22-27, according to the Federal Reserve Bank analysis cited in the Times story.
Bottom line, with lagging hiring, graduation is about to hit different.
Yup, this is “celebration season” with Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Allan Hancock College, and the local high schools all holding commencement ceremonies in coming weeks. Soon, thousands of local grads will pour into the job market.
Visions of successful future careers, however, may give way to an anxious reality where beginner dream jobs either don’t exist or are super hard to come by. Competitive is the word.
Of course, this sort of frustration sparks conversations about whether we are properly preparing our youth for the world that’s coming – or the world that is already here.
For a while now, the debate has centered over whether college is the only way forward or even worth it anymore, despite the larger return on investment over the long run. Some argue that hard skills and trade schools are the better option.
I recently attended several career fairs, including the one at Pioneer Valley High School and the Trades Fair at the Santa Maria Inn. I attended another — the annual Business Expo & Career Fair — this week at the Santa Maria Fairplex. Young people I have spoken with at these gatherings are optimistic but realistic at the same time (have to love Gen Z) but also anxious as heck.
For them, the question isn’t about college vs trade school. In interviews, they explained to me that their focus is on which path leads to real-world credentials, low or no debt, resilience against AI and automation, and local employability to avoid relocation costs.
Also, how quick? They don’t want to waste time.
In Santa Maria, only 15.7% of the population has a bachelor’s degree or higher, but these young people are skeptical about whether that statistic has much bearing on real-life success in the near term.
They’re relying on their own gumption, consistent effort, infinite ingenuity, and willingness to work like crazy, round the clock, to make things happen for them now. Can’t blame them.
But I’m still hoping for more lasting opportunities for them.
A little spark of hope came in late April-early May with a better-than-expected national jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The U.S. economy added more jobs (115,000) in April, surpassing expectations.
Most of those jobs came in an area where young people might have a good chance of having a future career: nursing and residential care facilities and home health care services.
The U.S. population is aging rapidly, due to lower birth rates and people living longer. Projections show that by 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older.
Caring for the elderly is not exactly a dream job for these young people, but chamba is chamba.
We have to take the little victories where we find them and make the most of the hand we are dealt.
Maybe a little chocoflan and coffee is called for after all.
