Mountain View Ranks No. 1 For Highest Labor Force In California

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- The old mantra is true in this Silicon Valley city: Work hard to play hard. Mountain View has much to boast when it comes to options for play -- a brand new Icon movie theater with heated seats and a slate of world-class entertainment at the Performing Arts Center.

Now as it turns out, the town nestled between Palo Alto and Sunnyvale comes with the distinction of having the highest concentration of workers in the labor force among California cities with a population of more than 60,000, HomeArea.com reported. The online neighborhood and real estate resource used the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates from its American Community Survey. The site crunched the numbers and rated 142 places in California with the highest percent in labor force.

Mountain View topped the list with 74.4 percent of its 76,260 residents working. Half the population falls within the ages of 20 to 54. The town's ranking in the highest 25 is followed by other Silicon Valley cities: Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Milpitas and San Jose ranked Nos. 5, 7, 15 and 23, respectively, in the highest 25.

"Mountain View is lucky to have some larger tech companies that call it home and contribute to its economic vitality," Mountain View Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bruce Humphrey told Patch.

The biggest is Google -- the search engine giant that's so big, it just bought property from the city of San Jose to expand. The behemoth is joined by Linked In, Synopsis and Symantec. Even Menlo Park-based Facebook is working on extending its reach into the San Antonio neighborhood of Mountain View.

But the largest companies only tell half the story, as Humphrey points out. The other part of the labor force works in the auxiliary support businesses that serve those workers and add to the area's "business eco system." One major example would have to be the 90 plus restaurants in the downtown area that service these workers' hunger pangs.

"Our population doubles during the day," Humphrey said.

People quantified in the study's labor force include those employed as a civilian or the armed forces, in addition to those that are unemployed and looking for work. Students that aren't working, homemakers, retirees, and institutionalized people are not included in the labor force. The American Community Survey statistical analysis is made to help local governments plan accordingly for probable tax revenue.

Overall, the percentage of Californians listed in the labor force from this latest study is 63.7 percent, rising 0.6% from 63.3 reported in the last release of data in the demographic survey. This year saw several big changes. Mountain View rose five slots from No. 6; Santa Barbara took the second highest spot, up from No. 52; San Francisco increased by six slots to take the No. 4 position; Redwood City fell from No. 1; and Tustin dropped from No. 2 to sixth in the ranking.
Bellflower saw the biggest percentage increase in its labor force by 13.9 percent, while Merced plummeted with the largest percentage decrease at minus 11.2 percent of people working compared to the last study.

For more information including the complete list of California cities, go to https://www.homearea.com/.