Santa Rosa, San Rafael, Napa make list of top-performing cities
By James Dunn
Santa Rosa ranked No. 25 and San Rafael No. 23 on a 2015 index by the Milken Institute of best-performing large cities on job growth, wage gains and technology trends that promote growth, and Napa ranked No. 16 among small cities.
California had six of the top 25 slots among large metropolitan areas, with four in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the report (best-cities.org). San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara claimed the top spot, fueled by strong technology innovation, both hardware and software.
San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco ranked second. San Luis Obispo ranked No. 10, and San Diego ranked No. 19.
“This year’s findings reveal how technology and oil again played significant roles in regional economies but in vastly different ways as those industries moved in opposite directions,” the Milken report said. “The nation’s tech centers are prominent among the index’s top performers, as are cities that have experienced high technology growth rates.”
The Best-Performing Cities Index was designed to measure which metropolitan areas promote economic vitality based on job creation and retention, as well as the quality of new jobs.
The Milken Institute has headquarters in Santa Monica.
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