Short term, the engineering job market in San Diego will be terrible as the laid off engineers flood the market. Hopefully some of these engineers will start th

Short term, the engineering job market in San Diego will be terrible as the laid off engineers flood the market. Hopefully some of these engineers will start their own small companies and this is where it gets interesting... There has been a dearth of small electronics technology company creation in San Diego since the start of the 2008 recession. Part of me says that this is about to change, but global competition, regulations, and barriers to entry may put a damper on it. It's very hard to start a hardware company these days. There are lots of capital-intensive requirements such as adhering to safety, toxicity, and emissions regulations and performing the necessary testing to gain certification. These tests and reports can run in to the tens of thousands of dollars, and they have to be re-done several times as a product evolves. I suppose this is why software-only companies have been popular recently. They are not subject to the same requirements as hardware companies. This may change in the future as more things are controlled by software, and the process becomes subject to regulation. Please note that I am not against regulation to protect consumers and customers, I'm only concerned about the financial burden it presents to newly formed companies. The regulations are necessary and required, but the costs are a real barrier to entry.