How many sign shops are in the San Diego area?

Name: Sign shops in the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro area, 2024
Creator: Sign Trade Data
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

77 sign shops

in the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro area in 2024. They employed 613 people, about 8 per shop, at an average of $79,003 a year. Sign shops make up a 8% smaller share of local private employers than they do nationally. The area holds 11.5% of California's sign shops.

Shops vs 2023+2.7%2 more shops than 2023

Concentration0.92×the national share of employers

Employees6138 per shop

Average pay$79,00325% above the U.S. average

The San Diego area among U.S. metro areas

#	Metro area	Sign shops	Employees	Avg pay	Concentration
14	Minneapolis areaMN-WI	84	—	—	1.22×
15	Orlando areaFL	80	703	$59,193	1.33×
16	Boston areaMA-NH	77	—	—	0.69×
16	San Diego areaCA	77	613	$79,003	0.92×
18	Portland areaOR-WA	74	—	—	1.15×
18	Washington areaDC-VA-MD-WV	74	—	—	0.54×
20	Charlotte areaNC-SC	73	—	—	1.18×

All 383 metro areas are ranked on the metro list. For California as a whole, with 2025 figures and the trend since 2014, see the California page.

Other metro areas in California

Metro area	Sign shops	Employees	Avg pay	Concentration
Los Angeles area	263	2,548	$64,368	0.58×
San Francisco area	66	—	—	0.47×
Riverside area	58	807	$62,931	0.56×
Sacramento area	34	—	—	0.52×
Fresno area	23	—	—	0.73×
San Jose area	20	129	$73,455	0.37×
Santa Rosa area	16	89	$64,722	1.18×
Oxnard area	13	72	$50,976	0.66×

Sign permits in San Diego

Sign permits are issued city by city, and the permit is often the slowest step in a sign job. The rules a shop works under in San Diego, from permit triggers to size and lighting limits, are set out in a plain-English guide to San Diego's sign regulations from PrinterFlo.

Questions

How many sign shops are in the San Diego area?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 77 sign manufacturing establishments in the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro area in 2024 (annual average, private employers), rank 16 of 383 U.S. metro areas. They employed 613 people, about 8 per shop.

What do sign shops pay in the San Diego area?

Average annual pay in the area's sign shops was $79,003 in 2024, 25% above the U.S. sign industry average of $63,399. It blends fabricators, installers, designers and owners on payroll.

Does the San Diego area have more sign shops than average?

Relative to its size, no: sign shops make up a 8% smaller share of the San Diego area's private employers than they do across the U.S. (a location quotient of 0.92, where 1.00 is the national share).

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), annual averages, private ownership, NAICS 339950 Sign Manufacturing, San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metropolitan statistical area, 2024 and 2023 annual averages, read September 24, 2026. 2024 is the latest year the BLS has published for metro areas. Concentration is the BLS location quotient for establishments. Ranks computed from the 383 metro areas with a published count; tied areas share a rank.