The local stakes
The Merced, CA area is home to 297,260 people. We are not going to tell you whether that is up or down until we have the 2020 figure in hand for this metro, because a growth claim without a baseline is not a fact. What is already true without it: California employers report STEM and skilled-trade roles they cannot fill, and the young people closest to those jobs are often the last to hear that the pathway exists. That gap does not depend on which direction the population moved.
~19% of the U.S. workforce is Latino — but only ~8% of STEM workers are. That gap is not talent. It is access, routing, and proof. (Figures are approximate national estimates; see Pew Research and NSF data.)
What exists in Merced right now
- Funded job training: your regional workforce board administers WIOA funds locally — find your American Job Center via CareerOneStop.
- Registered apprenticeships: searchable by city at apprenticeship.gov.
- Scholarships & FAFSA: federal aid starts at studentaid.gov; our mentors handle matching and follow-through.
- Displacement data: check your neighborhood's pressure at the Urban Displacement Project.
How Amigos en Acción lands here
Amigos en Acción runs on a patent-pending socioeconomic intelligence engine — the Community-Core Economic Engine (CCE). Every mentorship interaction becomes a measured signal; governed decisions route each student toward scholarships, trades, military service, or leadership; and nothing is claimed that isn't verified. In a market full of programs that report activity, we publish outcomes. When the Merced cohort opens, verified local outcomes will publish on this page — and not one number before it clears the gate.