MFI Report: Irvine at 50: From a Planned Community to a Growing Job Center December 2021
Table 2.1. Top 20 cities with at least 50,000 population in Southern California based on jobs/workers ratio in 2016
Jobs/ workers ratio 1980
1990
2000
2010
2016
1 Irvine
1.90
2.19
2.47
2.23
2.14
1.17
1.66
1.93
2.07
2.07
3 Burbank
1.64
1.80
1.75
1.82
1.91
4
Newport Beach
1.42
1.64
1.78
1.77
1.85
86,793
5
Palm Desert
-
1.60
1.63
1.78
1.85
51,675
2
Santa Monica
Population 2016
256,877 92,495 104,765
6 Pasadena
1.28
1.53
1.64
1.77
1.65
141,231
7 Cerritos
0.72
1.11
1.41
1.53
1.59
50,145
8 Torrance
1.05
1.36
1.49
1.54
1.55
147,190
9 Orange
1.21
1.53
1.46
1.44
1.51
140,289
10
Ontario
0.68
0.96
1.37
1.48
1.46
171,041
11
Chino
0.73
1.15
1.26
1.42
1.41
85,609
12
Costa Mesa
1.05
1.36
1.45
1.44
1.41
112,930
13
San Bernardino
1.35
1.48
1.30
1.32
1.39
215,252
14
Carson
1.02
1.41
1.40
1.43
1.34
92,927
15
Carlsbad
0.85
0.98
1.32
1.23
1.33
113,147
16
Redlands
0.67
0.78
0.96
1.18
1.30
70,765
17
San Diego
1.07
1.21
1.25
1.27
1.28
18
Gardena
1.33
1.31
1.27
1.23
1.17
19
San Buenaventura (Ventura)
0.92
1.16
1.11
1.10
1.16
110,153
20
Riverside
0.94
1.08
1.12
1.16
1.15
321,570
1,390,966 60,096
Table 2.1 shows twenty cities (with at least 50,000 population) showing the highest jobs/workers ratios in Southern California (including the following seven counties: Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties). Irvine has had the highest jobs/workers ratio in the entire Southern California region over this whole time period (of cities with at least 50,000 population). In 1980, Irvine had almost twice as many jobs as workers (with a ratio of 1.9). The second highest ratio was in Burbank (1.64). The large growth in jobs in the 1980s for Irvine increased the ratio to 2.19 in 1990, and it increased further yet to nearly 2.5 in 2000. In the 2000s and 2010s the ratio slid a bit in Irvine, to around 2.2, but still remained the highest in the region.
13
