The Inland Empire is the combination of California's San Bernadino and Riverside counties, lying tgether (north and south, respectively), inland and slightly away from the West Coast. This sector of California is called an empire, because it contains 120 cities that are growing economically and offering new job openings every year. In addition, ten of these cities show a high median household income compared to the rest of the south and southeastern portion of the state and ten additional cities are retirement havens that are increasing in popularity in the 21st century.

EXPLORATION HISTORY

The Inland Empire, or IE, is the land of Spanish Conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. He led an expedition in search of treaures in this inland segment of Southern California.

Coronado searched for the "Seven Golden Cities of Cibola" with 1400 men and many more pack and food animals, but found only Indigenous Peoples and no gold. However, he led the way for Spain to claim California as a territory by exloring the area of what is now the Arizona and California border.

He immigrated to New Spain (Mexico) about 1535, married a wealthy Spanish woman, and became Governor of a Western province, New Galacia. In 1540, he set out northward to find the Seven Cities and came as far as what is now the US, marked by the Coronado National Memorial in Arizona. He discovered the Southest of America in this way, searching for gold.

After two years of searching, he became satisfied that the Seven Cities were Native American villages and returned to Mexico where he was eventually convicted of maltreatment of Indigenous Peoples and slaves in New Galacia. However, history notes him for his discoveries of the American Southwest, California, and the Grand Canyon.

SOME DEMOGRAPHICS

The US Census Bureau reports that in the combined Riverside and San Bernardino Counties of the census, the percentage of the population that is Hispanic varies between 41% - 45%. Caucasians make up 43% or more; leaving, on average, 14% of Native Americans, Blacks, Asians, and others. Some of the cities contain higher rates of Caucasians and some lower.

The average age of the overall poulation in the Inland Empire is about 32 years, more than 5 years younger than the rest of the USA.

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JOB DISTRIBUTION BY INDUSTRY SECTOR

Through the year 2014, the Top 10 Fastest Growing Jobs in the Inland Empire consist of Information Technology (IT) positions, incuding those in the Healthcare Industry, and other Healthcare positions. Industrial Engineering rounds out the Top 10.

The Distribution of the Top 10 Fastest Growing Jobs in IE includes the following US Industry Sectors.:

1. Tourism: 97,100 jobs;
2. Wholesale Trade & Logistics: 45,800 jobs
3. Health Services and Bio-medicine: 36,200 jobs
4. Agriculture/Food Product Manufacturing: 28,100 jobs
5. Technologies: 22,700 jobs.

HOUSEHOLD INCOMES

The Inland Empire has shown the highest economic growth in Southern and Southeast California. In 2005, the Median Household Income for the Inland Empire was higher than anywhere else in the Southern Region of California, at over $44,000/year.

The rest of the southern/southeasterm region fell 34% below the national average for 2005 at $29,452 for the region.

Highest Median Income Zip Codes:

1. 91784 - Upland $83,602
2. 91709 - Chino Hills $80,588
3. 92210 - Indian Wells $80,138
4. 91737 - Rancho Cucamonga $78,956
5. 92881 - Corona $75,475
6. 91739 - Rancho Cucamonga $72,926
7. 92508 - Riverside $72,612
8. 92883 - Corona $71,333
9. 91765 - Diamond Bar $71,286
10. 92592 - Temecula $70,003

Top 10 Retirement Communities

1. Sun City
2. Hemet
3. Palm Springs
4. Rancho Mirage
5. Palm Desert
6. Hemet
7. Desert Hot Springs
8. March Air Reserve Base
9. Earp
10. Yucca Valley

The Inland Empire offers increasing numbrs of green industries and a wealth of green collar jobs in order to promote and encourage sustainability and alternate energy sources in San Bernadino and Riverside Counties.

A green development project known as the Green Valley Initiative reduces long commuting times with new transporation and energy sources and improves regional business and land use for best practices in the 21st century. The project joins social, economic and environmental entities for developing increasing number of new jobs in green technologies and cleaner energy.

The Inland Empire is a national and global hub location for Warehousing, Shipping and Logistics, processing deliveries from Southern California through to the rest of the USA. These industries are strong, expanding in territory, client bases, and numbers of new jobs offered yearly. As a coastal state, California offers substantial opportunities for warehouse, freight, and logistics related to goods potentially arriving from the Far East, the South Pacific, Russia, China, the Australian area, and other regions.

THE 2008 TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS SUMMIT

The 2008 Inland Empire Transportation and Logisitcs Summit met to plan further expansion of related business and job growth in San Bernadino and Riverside counties in the 21st century. Its hallmark offering was training in new empoyment recruitment and ongoing employee development. Such training is necessary in securing, developing, and maintain a strong employee base in order to complete in a global market. It also offered plans for workforce development matierals and recruiting for warehousing, transportation, and logistics in grades K-12. This included such activities in school as field trips, job shadowing, summber work programs, and similar.

The Corporations and Agencies meeting at the 2008 Summit included:

• Apex Bulk Commodities
• BNSF Railway
• Chaffey College
• County of San Bernardino
• Dalton Trucking
• Distribution Management Association
• Inland Empire Economic Partnership
• Logistics Training Consortium
• McLane Food Service Distribution
• San Bernardino Valley College

UNIVERSITIES

• University of Redlands
• California State University, San Bernardino
• California Baptist University
• University of California Riverside
• Claremont Colleges
• The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management
• Loma Linda University
• University of La Verne
• University of La Verne College of Law
• La Sierra University
• Cal Poly Pomona

JUNIOR COLLEGES

• Crafton Hills College
• Riverside Community College
• San Bernardino Valley College
• College of the Desert
• Chaffey College
• Copper Mountain College
• Victor Valley Community College Palo Verde College
• Barstow Community College
• Mt. San Jacinto College Community Christian College