LONDON, Ontario - On July 28, 2009, London was ranked 9th in Canada as a Top Canadian City for Young Professionals to Work and Live. The survey released by Next Generation Consulting collected and analyzed 45 measures for all Canadian cities with populations of more than 100,000 people.
Next Generation Consulting (NGC) has been studying the residential and relocation patterns of 20 - 40 year olds since 1998, and has developed a one-of-a-kind indexing system that evaluates a city based on the assets that are important to next gen workers. According to NGC, the seven indexes of a "Next City" are: Earning, Learning, Vitality, Around Town, After Hours, Cost of Lifestyle and Social Capital. The rankings announced today are based on a city's total score in all seven indexes.
"Simply being the cheapest place to live, or the city with the most jobs is not a long-term workforce strategy," says NGC's founder, Rebecca Ryan. Although jobs are important, Ryan says "The next generation is very savvy about choosing where they'll live. They look carefully at quality of life factors like how much time they're going to spend in traffic commuting, if they can live near a park or hike-and-bike trail, and whether a city's downtown stays awake after five." The Next Cities list ranks cities that are, or have the capacity to be, great places to live and work for the next generation, because they have the best overall score in the seven indexes the next gen values.
Jeny Wallace, Director Workforce Development at the London Economic Development Corporation was very pleased to see London's ranking. "We have known about the critical importance of the next generation to London's economy and workforce for some time. Events like the annual Student-2-Business Networking Conference and Emerging Leaders Forums and activities are designed to link this generation to the London community and are a result of this knowledge. To have such a great ranking from Rebecca Ryan's Next Generation Consulting endorses the fact that we on the right track. However, we cannot afford to be complacent. It is a tough environment to find employment and "Earning" is first on the list of indices. If we stay focused and continue to get the community's support, I think we can jump to the top 5!"
London was 9th behind Victoria, Ottawa, Vancouver, Kingston, Halifax, Toronto, Calgary, and Saskatoon. In total, 27 Canadian cities were ranked.
For more information, please contact:
Lesley Cornelius
Director, Marketing and Communications
LEDC
519-661-5009
lcornelius@ledc.com
