Fresno ranked dead last as the 102nd best U.S. city for business,
according to a 2010 MarketWatch annual survey.
The report had two factors for the rankings — the
company score and the economy score.
The company score was based
on the concentration of businesses within the metro area. The economy
score took into consideration unemployment, job growth, population
growth, personal income and local GDP.
Fresno had the
third-highest unemployment rate of the cities ranked at 15.2%, which was
compounded by the city growing faster than the national mean.
On
a positive note, the study reported the personal income growth
increased in Fresno. Local GDP grew over the past four years to among
the top half of the cities measured.
The state as a whole didn’t
fare well in the survey. Six California cities were listed in the bottom
10 — No. 93 Bakersfield, No. 96 Riverside, No. 97 Sacramento, No. 99
Modesto, No. 101 Stockton and No. 102 Fresno.
California’s poor
performance was partially due to its 12.4% unemployment rate, which is
the third worst of any state in the union.
“If you’re looking at
unemployment and job growth, it was not a good year for California,”
director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy
Stephen Levy told MarketWatch.
San Francisco was the only
California city in the top third, at No. 33. Other notable Golden State
cities include No. 37 San Diego, No. 39 San Jose and No. 61 Los Angeles.
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