Corporate Offices don't make money???

[Pengwuino 2]

So I was trying to figure out how my best cities were able to do it. One city had a 20% budget surplus going while another city had a paltry 1% surplus while another was hemmoraging cash. So I decide to see how my 2 good cities were doing it. I took a look at all the job numbers and residential numbers and all that good stuff and noticed something ridiculous.

In my best city of about 130k people, Cs$$ accounted for 56% of the jobs and 71% of my commercial income. I have not put down much high density commercial land so my Co$$ accounts for 8.5% of the jobs but only 1.5% of the income whereas Co$$$ account for 30% of the jobs and only 6% of my commercial income!

Now, in my other city of about 450k people, Cs$$ accounts for 10% of the jobs and 26% of the income while Cs$$$ ccounts for 8.5% of the jos and a whopping 38% of income! Aagain, Co$$ and Co$$$ take up each 40% of the jobs EACH yet only bring in 12% and 22% of the income respectively.

I don't understand this. The game seems to want you to shoot for corporate office space as it feels like it's the crown jewel of Sim City along with High tech industry. However, my money is just pouring in from Cs$$/$$$! As far as I know, they don't have any big differences in their impact on the city or anything like that, so what is going on here? Why is the game seemingly pushing you towards something that just doesn't make money?

My instinct tells me Co$$/Co$$$ just bring in tons of jobs which brings in your R$$$ workers, but even then I feel like I should just liter my city with medium density zoning and just bring in the cash with Cs$$/$$$. Anyone have any ideas that can help me figure out what to do with this?

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Interesting stats.  IT doesn't do much for your income either.  You can expect to make money with balance.  I think you'll find that the $$$ stuff is for the upper crust, of which there will be less than 10%.  Good cities have a nice general mix of grints (R$) who do all the scut work, R$$ who do all the middle management stuff, and R$$$, your entrepreneur class.  I expect my cities to have about 60% grints.

[Pengwuino 2]

Sure, balance is good. This situation seems to be quite UNbalanced. In the 450k city, Co takes up 80% of the jobs but only produces 35% of the income. I'm this close to trying out a city where I effectively ban all Co and see how my budgets run. They have to have a reason... you cant have huge corporate buildings without a ton of people which requires a ton of R$, but I'm not sure what the reason as to why you can't have a ton of Cs$$/$$$ without having to balance it out with something else.

[Timewarptrio 0]

I have the same problem: Twice as many Co jobs as Cs, but half the income.