El Cajon is a city of more than 100,000 residents located in San Diego County, California. The local population topped 100,000 a few years ago; the average annual population growth rate in El Cajon is approximately 0.5 percent. This is about half the pace of population growth in San Diego County as a whole, where much of the population expansion is occurring downtown. El Cajon is located on the eastern portion of San Diego County, bordered by cities such as La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley. El Cajon is located about 16 miles northeast of Downtown San Diego, and about 20 miles east of Ocean Beach. El Cajon is less than 10 miles east of the San Diego State University (SDSU) campus, directly accessible via I 8 freeway. SDSU is the oldest and largest university in San Diego, and the 3rd-largest in the state. Academically, the university appears in the top 100-150 range for all universities and the top-60 or so for public universities. Total enrollment in the university is nearly 35,000 students, including an undergraduate population of more than 30,000 students across 160 majors.
San Diego is a diverse economy with an employment base of more than 1.5 million workers across several industries. The area continues to add workers, and the pace of growth is generally more rapid than in neighboring Los Angeles and Orange County. During the past 12 months, employers have expanded payrolls by 1.9 percent with the addition of nearly 28,000 net new jobs. Growth over the longer term has been more impressive; in the past five years, total employment in San Diego has expanded by nearly 150,000 jobs, at an average annual pace of 2.3 percent.