Inland Empire battles low college grad rates to gain higher tech jobs, businesses

For many Californians the Inland Empire is a view from Interstate 10 of massive warehouses and desert en route to Las Vegas or other parts of the country.

To residents of the region, it’s a place of affordable housing yet interminable traffic, sweeping vistas shrouded by perpetual smog, and huge employers alongside family-owned businesses.

More than 4.7 million people — 12% of California’s population — live in its 27,000 square miles and more are moving in, including a growing Latino population. Though the Inland Empire is a major economic hub for the state, its workers earn less than statewide averages. Its homes cost about half the price of those in coastal counties, and there are fewer college graduates than in most metro areas in California.

Lower education levels mean “we have been unable to attract higher-tech, higher pay, higher quality industry to the region,” said state Sen. Richard Roth, a Democrat from Riverside. “That’s beginning to change, and it needs to change. The Inland Empire is going to have to move out of the warehouse era and move into the high-tech industry era.”

Tomás Morales — president of Cal State San Bernardino

Inland Empire’s massive warehouses increasingly are moving toward automation and expanding beyond distributing goods to manufacturing them. Tomás Morales, Cal State University Bernardino’s president, says demand for an educated workforce is increasing —  but the transition could displace some workers while shifting the job market from lower-wage positions to skilled trades and high-tech jobs.

One obstacle is the region’s low educational achievement level: 20% of Inland Empire residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, Morales said, while national and statewide averages are about 37%.

“Clearly that’s a big challenge for the industry and a big challenge for the community: how do we prepare an educated workforce to provide leadership in the area,” Morales said.

With 88% of its 18,000 students coming from Riverside or San Bernardino Counties, Cal State San Bernardino is training a home-grown workforce for local industries, with undergraduate and graduate programs in cybersecurity, entrepreneurship and supply chain management.

The effort to educate new professionals took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, Morales said. The university’s four-year graduation rate of 25% and six-year rate of 55% are down from its record high of 31% and 62%, respectively, in 2020.

Faculty and administrators hope to improve graduation rates while focusing on the region’s workforce needs.

“We’re graduating students in computer science, prepared to work in the robotics space in distribution centers,” Morales said. “We’re producing managers to support logistics and supply chain management throughout the Inland Empire.”

Michael Burrows — CEO of San Bernardino International Airport

San Bernardino International Airport emerged from the site of Norton Air Force Base, which operated a military logistics depot for half a century. When the base closed in 1994, it took more than 10,000 jobs with it.

It took decades to bring those jobs back, CEO Michael Burrows said.

The year after the base closure, the airport began leasing vacant space to various businesses: a paper company, an aerospace firm, an RV manufacturer. Then it added charter flights and aircraft maintenance.

“In many cases we’ve seen our aircraft mechanics graduate up to other careers in aviation, to become pilots and air traffic controllers,” Burrows said.

The pace picked up with the launch of commercial air cargo, starting with UPS in 2017, FedEx in 2018, and then Amazon Air’s Southern California hub in 2021.

“Transportation logistics are literally in our DNA,” Burrows said.

The former air force base came with 500 acres of open land, so airport officials teamed up with developers to build 16 million square feet of industrial and office space — the equivalent of about 277 football fields —  to host clients ranging from Stater Bros. grocery markets to Fender Guitar manufacturing.

By 2022 the airport and business park reported creating 17,757 direct jobs, more than the jobs lost from the base closure.

Behind the executive jet terminal, cargo planes offload freight into hangars, connecting global markets to U.S. consumers. Everything from satellite components and drones, to medical devices and transplant organs, crosses the tarmac.

“It’s kind of like a freeway,” Burrows said. “You want it to always be open.”

One airport tenant is entirely devoted to painting planes, with a hangar equipped as a massive paint stall. It takes about eight weeks to complete an aeronautical paint job, Burrows said.

The logistics and distribution industry has generated plenty of press for the air pollution it generates. So the airport’s goal has been to go greener, Burrows said, with electric vehicles deployed in 2010 and plans for an on-site hydrogen fuel station, to produce the fuel for vehicles and ground support.

In 2022 the airport reached another milestone with the introduction of commercial flights.

“That has been our North Star,” Burrows said.

Breeze Airways, founded by the creator of Jet Blue, offers a quirky selection of flights from San Bernardino to San Francisco, Utah, Arizona and Connecticut under the motto “less pricey, more nicey.”

Bansree Parikh — president of Bank of America Inland Empire

The Inland Empire is known for its commerce and for smog and traffic. Bansree Parikh aims to turn that around and position the region as a worldwide leader in “sustainable logistics.”

“That means electrification, hydrogen, technology, robotics,” Parikh said from her Ontario office.

The plan is to generate advanced manufacturing jobs in partnership with educational institutions.

“Economic development, quality of life, environmental protection; I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive at all,” Parikh said. “I think they’re complimentary.”

Various parts of the region have their own characteristics and business opportunities, she said.

For the Coachella Valley it’s hospitality, tourism and entertainment, with boutique hotels, restaurants and golf courses. The Coachella Festival draws hundreds of thousands of music fans each year. And Disney is fusing Hollywood fantasy to resort housing, with its master-planned “Storyliving” development in Rancho Mirage.

In Temecula and Murrietta, manufacturing, bioscience, construction and business parks drive the economy, she said, along with agri-tourism at the area’s bucolic wineries.

The High Desert runs on logistics and distribution, healthcare and commercial and residential real estate. That’s expected to get a boost with the Brightline high-speed rail project from Southern California to Las Vegas, which broke ground April 22.

Parikh says the objective for each region is to generate enough local jobs to support the families who live there. Shorter commutes would also mean less traffic and pollution.

“It’s a quality of life game changer when you can live and work in the Inland Empire,” she said.

Juan Carlos Belliard — assistant VP for Community Partnerships at Loma Linda University Health

With more than 17,000 employees, Loma Linda University Health is one of the biggest employers in the region and a highly ranked medical center.

It encompasses a university with eight healthcare schools and six hospitals, making it both an employment hub and a workforce pipeline, said Juan Carlos Belliard, Loma Linda health’s assistant vice president.

“What I would say our region needs more of is that linkage between education and workforce,” he said.

To support that, Loma Linda pairs with local school districts to offer summer mentorships for high school students.

“That is getting the students to envision what it takes to become a physician or a public health professional or a nurse,” Belliard said.

Loma Linda also employs community health workers, called promotores, who survey community needs and connect residents with services for disease prevention and treatment.

Belliard views Loma Linda’s array of services and training programs as a microcosm of the region’s entrepreneurial character.

“The focus from the outside is on the negative, what hasn’t worked here, or what used to be, and it’s too bad we don’t have what we had before,” Belliard said. “I really see the opposite of that deficit model, and see people who move here for opportunity.”