A number of Orange County cities appear to be among a small crop nationwide with a job base that’s about equal to their populations.
Brea, Los Alamitos, Irvine, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa all can lay claim to the distinction, based on a review and analysis by the Business Journal of recent data on employment and populations.
The number of jobs located in Brea equates to 106% of its population of about 40,000.
Los Alamitos, with a population of 11,620, has a rate of 95%.
The jobs-to-population ratio is different from employment or unemployment rates, which are more commonly cited figures calculated regularly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those rates measure what proportion of a working-age population is employed, regardless of where their workplaces are located.
The jobs-to-population rate identifies where jobs are located. It is difficult to definitively say what city has the highest jobs-to-population ratio in the nation or to provide a complete ranking. The sheer volume of data presents challenges, along with factors such as margins of error due to different rates of census participation, as well as mismatches on the timing of reports from various agencies and organizations that track data and sort it by locales.
The rates for Brea, Los Alamitos are driven by a number of factors. Each has a diverse spread of businesses, with key leading sectors.
Brea counts on large offices of Bank of America and insurer Mercury General Corp. as key contributors of jobs in its finance and insurance sector, which makes up about 23% of jobs in the city. Other major employers include medical device maker Beckman Coulter Inc.
Los Alamitos also counts on healthcare for a lot of jobs. Nearly 10% of jobs there are at the Los Alamitos Medical Center. Other leading employment sectors include retail, wholesale trade, manufacturing and construction.
Larger Cities
A high jobs-to-population rate gets more impressive as cities get larger.
Irvine’s population as of July 2011 was 215,529, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The city was host to 204,253 jobs, based on the North American Industry Classification System.
That puts Irvine’s jobs base at 95% of its population, among the highest percentages in the U.S., especially among cities with populations of more than 200,000.
Costa Mesa’s rate is 94%, with 104,453 jobs and a population of about 112,000.
Newport Beach also is at 94%, with 81,652 jobs and population of about 87,000.
Westminster has the lowest rate in Orange County, at 20% on a population of about 90,000.
The rate countywide is about 47% on a population of a little more than 3 million, according to state data.
Other comparisons are available to offer perspective for the numbers here: Chicago stands at 42%, and Los Angeles comes in at 39%.
Los Angeles also was ranked as one of the most expensive cities to run a business in, according to a 2011 study done by Claremont McKenna College’s Rose Institute of State & Local Government.
The same study reports that Costa Mesa was among the least-expensive California cities.
A few smaller cities around the U.S. are on par with OC’s leaders when it comes to jobs. Santa Clara, in the center of Silicon Valley, has a 100% rate on a population of about 118,000. The rate in Redmond, Wash., is 97%, with the headquarters of Microsoft Corp. accounting for about 75% of the jobs in the Seattle suburb, which has a population of about 55,000.
The high rates in Irvine, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach stand out due to the diversity of the job bases they reflect. Irvine counts more than 40,000 manufacturing jobs (see related story, page 1) alongside 20,000 or so other jobs connected to the University of California, Irvine.
Costa Mesa also has a strong roster of manufacturers and other employers in the service and financial segments.
Newport Beach counts on the finance segment as its leader when it comes to jobs, but the industry makes up 15% of the total number of jobs in the city, suggesting a healthy spread in other segments.
The jobs-to-population ratio is a sign of health for local economies whether employees live in the city or not.
“For every dollar in earned wages, it circulates in the community some six times,” said Ron Stein, vice president of PTS Staffing Solutions, an Irvine-based staffing firm. “You get a paycheck, you’re buying dinner, getting gas, going to the movies. Services like restaurants and [entertainment] all create a vibrant community.”
Orange County likely benefits from relatively high education levels among its population.
Cycle
Adding jobs also can touch off a virtuous cycle for cities, bringing revenue from developers’ fees and business licenses. Those and other sources of tax revenue help maintain services that make it more attractive to residents, which can prompt new development that can boost a city’s property tax base.
Much of the steady gain in population that Irvine has seen since it incorporated as a city 32 years ago has been helped by its school district, which is generally considered to be among the best in the state.
“Irvine was first a bedroom community, with not a lot of businesses there,” said Ed Hart, director of California State University, Fullerton’s Center for Family Business. “Over time, more businesses were founded and more people came in. Property values were driven higher. It has nice schools, and it’s close to the ocean. It’s an attractive place for companies. It made sense for people to bring their organizations to Irvine.”
