Orange County’s rank has dropped to 106 from 49 last year out of 200 large metro areas in ability to create and sustain jobs, according to a new report from the Milken Institute in Santa Monica.
The county, like other communities that lost ground in the Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners 2008 Best Performing Cities Index, suffered from the loss of jobs related to housing, mortgage and construction.
Ross DeVol, director of regional economies
The areas that are thriving are booming technology or international trade centers. Provo, Utah, tops this year’s list while last year’s top job creator, Ocala, Fla., fell to 30 on the same real esate woes that plague Orange County.
“Much of (Orange County’s decline) stems from the fallout of the subprime mortgage decline,” said Ross DeVol, Milken’s director of regional economics who wrote the report. “Plus the weakness in the housing market brought a 10.5% decline in financial services jobs and 6% decline in construction employment.”
“Combine that with weakness in travel and tourism, which are both down from a year ago around the country, affects Orange County as well,” he added.
Orange County’s one-year job growth ranked 178th out of the 200 metro areas. One semi-bright spot locally is a strong tech sector that DeVol called “a stablizing factor in Orange County’s job market.”
Here are the other 2008 top job creating communities:
2. Raleigh-Cary, N.C.
3. Salt Lake City, Utah
4. Austin-Round Rock, Texas
5. Huntsville, Ala.
The highest ranking California city is Bakersfield, checking in at 12, up from 17 in 2007. However, other local communities also suffered year-to-year declines including:
- Riverside-San Bernardion-Ontario, 53, down from 3 in 2007
- Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Golita, 100, down from 70
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, 126, down from 109
The biggest decline came in Vallejo-Fairfield, falling 123 spots to a 2008 rank of 145. The city of Vallejo filed for bankruptcy in May because of the high cost of city employee salaries and benefits at a time when sales and property tax revenues fell.
On the other hand, San Francisco improved to 74th from 97th last year and San Jose rose to 84th from 107th last year on the recovering technology jobs market, DeVol said.
“Going forward, we are going to see another year where the housing sector will impact metros’ ranking (in this report),” he said. “Export (job) growth will do well, but foreign economies are slowing so it won’t be as robust as this year.”
Click here to see an interactive map of city rankings.
Click here to read the press release.
OTHER STORIES:
- 2 of 3 O.C. job losses tied to real estate
- It could be 2013 before O.C. recovers from mortgage job losses
- Jobs decline despite small-business growth
- Unpaid payroll taxes total $58 billion
- No new jobs at California small businesses
- Small-business jobs growth shows weakness
- Which O.C. firms made ‘great workplaces’ job site?
That;s to bad for O.C. I hope things get better for everyone having a tough time.
BTW: Raleigh-Cary, N.C AMAZING place to live & work.
I agree with Raleigh. That’s a fantastic city! Great, safe neighborhoods to raise children in with good schools, and a fun downtown neighborhoods with great restaurants and places to hang out on weekends.
Charleston, South Carolina is also very nice. But Raleigh, North Carolina deserves to be at the top of that list.
Would have been nice to see San Diego’s ranking as many in South OC work there. (It dropped from 65 to 72; i.e., relatively stable). And, to think OC “leaders” thought the local economy was diversified!
[...] more productiveTip of the Day: 10 musts before terminationDoes Happy Hour build or kill your career?O.C. plunges in job-creation rankingFee rule for immigrant workers a landmineTip of the Day: Hire well or manage hardJobs decline [...]