The county always has wild swings in national rankings, frequently falling into the top 10 or bottom 10 nationally depending on what criteria are used, said Richard Chapman, president and chief executive of the Kern County Economic Development Corp.

Kern will always have trouble competing in an index that factors in unemployment.

"We've got areas of the county that have had 30 percent unemployment for 50 years," he said.

But Chapman pointed out that among the nation's 100 largest metro areas, Kern had the second highest rate of private sector job growth over the past 10 years. That's according to data released last month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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