PAGE 3: Matches & Mismatches

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Give the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. credit for coming up with apt matches as it seeks to eliminate a glaring mismatch in the local economy. The LAEDC and its resident Center for a Competitive Workforce found matches in the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the system’s LA Orange County Regional Connection on a report titled “LA & Orange County Community Colleges: Powering Economic Opportunity,” released last week in the penthouse of the USC Tower on Olive Street. Other entities matched up for the effort are the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce, Southern California Leadership Council, Centers of Excellence and JP Morgan Chase. No shortage of data in the report, including expectations of 67,450 job openings in 20 key local industries over the next five years. Sounds great until you get to the part noting that the region’s educational network turned out only 7,800 “career education award earners” for those occupations last year, suggesting looming shortages. Visit laedc.org for more. … California State University-Dominguez Hills matched up with LAEDC to present a related forum on “The Future of Work in Los Angeles.” A footnote from the program indicates that CSUDH is particularly well matched to the South LA County community it calls home – 65 percent of the 100,000 graduates the school has produced since its founding in 1965 live within 25 miles of the campus in Carson. … A couple of stories in this week’s edition – Garrett Reim’s front-page piece on the hot market for tech talent and Howard Fine’s report on page 15 about the busy field of temporary placement firms here – lend support to the notion of a mismatch noted by California State Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, who addressed a press conference held prior to the forum. Burke noted that Inglewood, Hawthorne and Lennox – all of which are at least partially in her 62nd District – have traditionally seen unemployment rates well above the region’s average despite their proximity to the heart of Southern California’s job-rich aerospace industry. … You’ll find a match of old-school personal style and cutting-edge design if you visit Roy Reel at Harley Ellis Devereaux’s office downtown, where he handles business development for the architecture firm. … Check out Westfield Century City for a fine match of merchandising and local market (see related coverage, page 5; Commentary, page 40). … Sullivan Says: Men can match a double-breasted suit with a solid shirt and patterned tie to hit the fashion mark this fall. … Credit the lawyers at Hinden & Breslavsky for a likely match with the mood of many of their neighbors. Banners over the firm’s office at the corner of Pico & Rimpau leave no doubt where they stand when it comes to the children of illegal immigrants who have gotten a pass from federal authorities as a matter of policy – the so-called Dreamers – but could see a change under the Trump Administration. Such tumult might be a potential source of business for Hinden & Braslavsy, of course, but the public declaration also could cost a business these days. Here’s guessing the sentiment expressed in the banners is appreciated in any case by everyday folk in Mid-City, the sort of neighborhood where reality rolls on as Washington wallows in headlines.

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