Sonoma Lags Behind Most Other Counties for Job Creation, According to New Study

A new study shows that Sonoma County has made little progress toward generating new jobs, ranking a disheartening 389th out of 400 cities across the country, according to an article in Friday's Press Democrat.

The report examined non-farm jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 398 U.S. metropolitan areas between 2000 and January 2011 and found that job growth in the county was much lower than in many other part of the United States, including the Midwest, California's Central Valley and even parts of the South.

According to the Joel Kotkin, an economist and one of the co-authors the study, the trend shows a shift in employment growth from the public sector to private businesses.

But Robert Eyler, an economics professor at Sonoma State University said the study does not tell the whole story because it doesn't take into account the self-employed, who represent a significant number of jobs in the region.

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