Most of Los Angeles County's new jobs…
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Most of Los Angeles County's new jobs will be low paying, report says
Erma Hall-Wood carries a California state flag while joining other protesters in front of a McDonald's restaurant in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, April 14, 2016. Protesters calling for pay of $15 an hour and a union were at McDonald's restaurants around the country and overseas Thursday as part of an ongoing push targeting the world's biggest hamburger chain. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
By Kevin Smith | kvsmith@scng.com | San Gabriel Valley Tribune
PUBLISHED: December 1, 2016 at 3:05 a.m. | UPDATED: August 28, 2017 at 1:53 a.m.
Los Angeles County has added more than 475,000 jobs since the depths of the Great Recession, and it's expected to gain another 334,200 jobs by 2020, according to a report released Thursday.
But most of those jobs will be low-paying positions, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. reported at the seventh annual Southern California Economic Summit, sponsored by the Southern California Association of Governments and the Southern California Leadership Council.
Many jobs won't require much education
The L.A. County report notes that more than a third of the county's projected openings over the next five years will require workers without a high school diploma and no work experience. Another 30 percent will go to people with a high school diploma or the equivalent with no work experience.
The remaining positions will be suitable for graduates with a bachelor's degree (10.5 percent), those with an associate's degree (4.5 percent) and others with some level of education beyond high school (5.6 percent).
"These numbers are based on the growth of various industries and the jobs within those industries," said Christine Cooper, the LAEDC's senior vice president. "We see growth, but a lot of it just happens to be in industries that are paying lower wages. Most of these are jobs that serve the local population like restaurant jobs and retail jobs. More people going out to dinner, and they're buying everything off the shelves these days."
Wages will be low
Those low-paying jobs will be in such fields as health care support, sales, transportation and material moving, and food preparation and serving. Wages in those positions typically fall well below the county's median annual income of $39,250.
The median yearly wage for someone working in the transportation/material moving sector, for example, is $27,914, while those in food preparation and serving earn about $21,653 a year.
Nearly 22 percent of county residents 25 and older lack a high school degree
Wages are typically a direct reflection of how much education someone has attained. The report shows that nearly 22 percent of L.A. County residents ages 25 and older have less than a high school education while 21.2 percent have a high school diploma or the equivalent. Another 19.2 percent have some college, 6.8 percent have associates degrees, 20.2 percent have bachelor's degrees and 10.7 percent have a graduate degree.
L.A. County is still a major manufacturing hub, but the industry has shed a lot of jobs over the past decade.
"We have 90,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than we did in 2007 and those were jobs that paid around $52,000 a year back then," Cooper said. "We've added 90,000 additional food service jobs since 2007, but those are jobs that have an average annual wage of $20,000."
Last year's average wage for payroll employment in L.A. County was $58,742.
But it's not all bad news.
Industries gaining traction
The report highlights advanced transportation and fuels and biosciences as emerging industries that are providing innovative products and services for the region.
Los Angeles is a recognized center of automotive design and transportation innovation, including electric and autonomous vehicles, biofuels, battery storage and energy solutions.
The county is also home to some of the leading medical and bioscience research institutions in the nation. That industry encompasses medical devices, pharmaceuticals, laboratories and clinics, and related research and development.
Wendie Johnston, lab director for the Pasadena Bioscience Collaborative, said L.A. County's bioscience industry is booming.
"We have much more money and workforce training at the community college level than either San Diego or the Bay Area," she said. "Our collaborative has 20 companies right now."
One of the companies is developing a cell/gene therapy treatment for multiple sclerosis and another is focused on stem cell research to develop products for skin care and wound healing.
County's poverty rate falls
The report also shows that poverty rates in L.A. County have fallen. In 2000, 17.9 percent of county residents age 65 or younger were living in poverty, which last year was defined as someone earning $12,331 or less a year. In 2010 the rate dipped to 17.5 percent and last year it dropped to 16.6 percent.
But those figures may be understating the problem.
"Although the poverty threshold is updated annually, it does not take into account the wide variation of the cost of living across municipalities," the report said. "Since Los Angeles County is considered to have a relatively high cost of living, the official poverty rate is likely to understate the actual incidence of poverty in the county."
Kevin Smith | reporter
Kevin Smith handles business news and editing for the Southern California News Group, which includes 11 newspapers, websites and social media channels. He covers everything from employment, technology and housing to retail, corporate mergers and business-based apps. Kevin often writes stories that highlight the local impact of trends occurring nationwide. And the focus is always to shed light on why those issues matter to readers in Southern California.
kvsmith@scng.com
Follow Kevin Smith @sgvnbiz
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