Joy of Diversity
THE AMERICAN ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION’S RECENTLY RELEASED
annual “Cybercities” report ranked Orange County as the nation’s No. 10 cybercity among 60 U.S. cybercities in terms of high-tech employment, based on 1998 numbers.
At first blush, it doesn’t seem like all that much to crow about: If nine locales boast more tech jobs than OC, how can the county back up its claim of being among the nation’s technology elite?
On the other hand, the only cities ranking ahead of OC were No. 1 San Jose and a slew of major metropolitan areas that (unlike OC) anyone could point to on a map. In order of tech jobs, they are: Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Yet only four of those higher-ranking cities (San Jose, Dallas, Washington and Boston) had a higher concentration of tech jobs (workers per 1,000 of population) than OC. Moreover, in absolute terms, OC ranked ahead of some other cities that consider themselves to be tech high-flyers, including Phoenix, Seattle, Houston, Denver, Austin, Texas, and Raleigh, N.C.
Besides, one of the strengths of OC is that it is part of a technology region. Throw in No. 6 LA and No. 21 San Diego, and you come up with 214,000 tech jobs in Southern California, ranking behind only San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland (382,000) and Boston-New Hampshire (235,000). Those numbers seem to align a little better with the general perception. It often is thought, at least in our neck of the woods, that Southern California is the third-most eminent technology region in the country, after Northern California and the Boston area.
That said, another beauty of the Orange County economy is that tech is only a part of it, albeit a big one. The county in recent years has developed into a center for a number of other industries, among them auto design, telecommunications, finance, medical instruments, pharmaceuticals, apparel and engineering services.
Anecdotally, this local strength is reflected in the stock market. Sure, Broadcom Corp. is off by more than half from its 52-week high, but look at Allergan Inc., up more than 60% for the year. Or it is reflected in the traffic jams of motorists entering the county in the morning and leaving it at night.
Indeed, in the broad-based annual ranking by Forbes magazine of “The Best Places” for business, Orange County finished seventh this year out of 200 metro areas. All of the locales ranking higher than OC are smaller, with the exception of Atlanta (the only city out-ranking OC on the AEA’s tech-jobs list that also scored higher than OC in the Forbes survey). And by Forbes’ reckoning, Orange County is among the four most-diverse tech economies, with 10 distinct technology clusters,the same as San Jose and San Diego, and just one fewer than Boston.
This is significant stuff, particularly as we head into a new year that contains a mix of hope and uncertainty. The consensus among economists is that the nation and California are headed for a slowdown, if not even a mild recession. However, the economic consensus is that economically diverse OC and rest of Southern California will be hit less hard than the more tech-heavy Bay area.
In fact, Chapman University, with a good track record for calling these things, hardly sees any letup in Orange County. It is predicting that OC employment growth will slow only mildly in 2001, to 3.5% from an estimated 4% annual rate in the current quarter. Chapman still sees another 50,000 jobs being added to the county total next year; this includes a boost of 7,000 from an old industry standby, tourism, thanks to the opening of Disney’s California Adventure.
This has been a long, long economic expansion. OC is completing a seventh straight year of job growth and a fifth straight year of outpacing the national growth rate. A slowdown or worse may lie ahead. But the good news is that Orange County’s economy looks more resilient than ever.
The Final Tally
WINNERS
Florida’s trial court judges. Of different parties, backgrounds and racial and ethnic persuasions, they put principle over politics, and did the law and their state proud.
MSNBC. Hip, smart and entertaining.
Dick Cheney. Classy guy.
George Bush. A win is a win.
LOSERS
Florida’s Supreme Court judges. OJ jurors with law degrees.
CNN. Tired, pompous, sometimes clueless and always oblivious to their liberal bias.
Joe Lieberman. Classy guy,
tarnished.
Al Gore. Finished.
Now What?
DOES THIS MEAN I HAVE TO GO BACK TO WATCHING GAMES?
The networks can help me with political withdrawal:
ABC should replace their “Monday Night Football” broadcast team with Brian Williams, Chris Mathews and Pat Caddell. Fox should transfer Brit Hume and Bill O’Reilly into the sports department. ESPN should sign Rush Limbaugh to host “SportsCenter.”
Keith Olbermann? Make him Gore’s press secretary.
