Santa Clarita, Thousand Oaks and Burbank ranked among the top 15 in a Verizon Business report that looked at the country’s most “business-ready” cities.Verizon Business compiled the report to find cities that are poised for significant growth as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Santa Clarita ranked No. 4, Thousand Oaks ranked No. 9 and Burbank No. 14 in the report that included cities from California, Arizona, Texas, Missouri and Florida.The cities were ranked on six factors: mean income, unemployment rate, people with a bachelor’s degree or higher, number of business applications, percentage of population that started a new business and homeownership. Most of the criteria’s information was sourced from 2019 Census estimate data.Homeownership was the highest weighted factor at 30 percent.The compilation lauded Thousand Oaks’ “impressively low” unemployment rate of 2.9 percent. Burbank was called a “nexus for business-savvy living” and was highlighted for its mean household income of $103,777.Also, L.A. County city West Covina was named in the list, ranking No. 2. The top city on the list was Sugar Land, Texas.The averages of the factors for all 15 cities were as follows:Average mean household income: $80,092Average unemployment percentage: 3.5 percentAverage bachelor’s degree percentage of population: 24.5 percentAverage number of business applications: 8,152Average percentage of population that started a new business: 0.36 percentAverage percentage of people who own their house: 58.7 percent
