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Local Industries and Future Economic Growth Orange County residents recognize that the local economy is undergoing major change. Today, high technology figures prominently in residents' hopes for future economic growth in the county. When asked how important five different industries will be to the future economic growth of Orange County, computers and electronics receive the highest ranking (64%), followed closely by bio-medical and bio-technology (58%). Only one in seven say these two high technology industries are not important to the county's future economic growth. As a further sign of a lack of confidence in the current economy, the traditional leading local industries such as tourism (47%), finance, insurance and real estate (40%) and aerospace (37%) are all ranked much lower. In fact, between a third and a quarter of residents rate each of these types of industries as not important to the county's future economic growth. Residents with annual household incomes over $50,000 are more likely than those with lesser incomes to see the importance of future high technology enterprises such as computers and electronics (69% to 61%) and bio-medical industries (62% to 54%). Upper-income residents are also more likely than others to stress finance, insurance and real estate (47% to 36%) and tourism (53% to 44%). However, there are no income differences with regard to the future importance of aerospace. In general, residents aged 18 to 34 are less likely than older residents to rate the traditional local economic leaders such as aerospace, tourism and finance, insurance and real estate as important to Orange County's future economic growth. However, residents in all age groups place equal importance on the bio-medical industry and computers and electronics. There are no differences by region in the importance placed on various industries for the county's future economic growth. |
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