Unemployment Rate Declines
Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate dropped sharply to 5 percent in November.
The county’s surprisingly big decline in joblessness, down from 5.5 percent in October, came despite increasing signs of a national economic slowdown. It is the county’s lowest unemployment rate in at least 18 years.
Statewide, joblessness held steady at 4.8 percent in November for the third straight month, as improvement in California’s urban areas was offset by rising joblessness in rural communities.
Analysts cautioned that the latest statistics by the California Employment Development Department may have somewhat overstated the recent actual improvement in L.A. County’s labor market. The county’s jobless numbers are based on a comparatively small statistical sampling of just more than 1,800 households.
In Southern California last month, unemployment fell in every county except Ventura, where it climbed to 4.7 percent from 4.4 percent in October. Orange County posted a decline in joblessness to 2.2 percent, down from 2.4 percent in November.
Shipping Slows
The number of import containers at the Port of Los Angeles fell below 200,000 in November for the first time in eight months, marking the shipping industry’s traditional end-of-the-year import slowdown.
Most imported goods earmarked for the holiday shopping season arrived by the end of October, which set the port’s single-month record for inbound cargo at 251,000 20-foot-long shipping containers.
November’s tally was a relatively low 199,400, port officials said, but was still 14 percent higher than the November 1999 import total.
Exports at the port, which is the largest in the U.S., were 13 percent higher than a year ago with about 83,000 containers.
Meanwhile, import growth was relatively flat last month at the Port of Long Beach, the nation’s second-busiest commercial harbor, compared with unusually strong inbound cargo volume the previous November, port officials said.
Last month’s imports were up only 1.7 percent over the previous November, to about 213,000 20-foot-long shipping containers, from about 209,000 in the year-ago period. Exports also were flat, dropping a half-percent to 90,756 containers from 91,201.
More Layoffs at Fremont
Fremont General Corp., a Santa Monica-based insurer, will cut an additional 29 percent of its work force in a new effort to slash costs in response to price cutting in its workers’ compensation business.
Fremont said it will lay off 465 employees and close 16 of its 24 production and claim-servicing offices, cutting costs by about $55 million a year before taxes. The reductions bring total job losses at the company to 1,000, or 50 percent of its work force, since June 30.
California workers’ compensation insurers have been hit hard by years of price-cutting that followed deregulation of the market in the state in the early 1990s. Fremont, whose shares have fallen 68 percent this year, said its fourth-quarter operating earnings will be reduced by $228 million after taxes as a result of the job cuts and office closings.
Clothier in Bankruptcy
Chorus Line Corp., which owns well-known sportswear makers Chorus Line and Carole Little, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The Vernon-based company closed abruptly last month after creditors took legal action to push the troubled firm to reorganize or liquidate. The shutdown has thrown 300 employees out of work and sent suppliers and lenders scrambling to grab what’s left of a company flattened by an estimated $70 million to $80 million in debt.
Petitions were filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles on behalf of Chorus Line and California Fashion Industries Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary. An attorney representing three of Chorus Line’s creditors, said company management has informed him that they are attempting to secure financing to resurrect the closed firm.
Amgen Buys Cancer Drug
Amgen Inc., the world’s largest biotechnology company, agreed to buy Immunomedics Inc.’s epratuzumab, an experimental antibody treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, to build up its pipeline of cancer drugs.
Thousand Oaks-based Amgen will pay Immunomedics, which develops cancer treatments, $18 million plus royalties and clinical-research milestone payments potentially worth $65 million. Amgen also will make one-time milestone payments totaling up to $225 million if the drug has sales of as much as $1 billion.
Amgen will also pay Immunomedics for each second-generation product Amgen develops that is based on epratuzumab. Epratuzumab is being studied in patients who don’t respond to Rituxan, the current antibody for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
FCC Approves Station
Azteca America Inc., trying to become the country’s third Spanish-language television network, received Federal Communications Commission approval to construct a full-power Los Angeles station.
The approval brings the number of stations Azteca America owns or is in the final stages of acquiring to 12, company officials said.
The construction of KIDN-TV Channel 54 is a key step in what will be an intensely challenging undertaking. Los Angeles-based Azteca America was formed as a joint venture between Mexico’s second-largest network, Television Azteca, and privately held Pappas Telecasting Inc. of Visalia.
The venture will create competition for Los Angeles-based Univision Communications Inc., which has long dominated the local market, as well as for distant-second Telemundo, based in Miami.
Univision this month announced its acquisition of USA Networks Inc.’s broadcast group for $1.1 billion. That deal for 13 full-power stations and a minority interest in four more gives the leading network second stations in a number of growing Latino markets.
Hotel Rates Climb
The Los Angeles County hotel industry continued to thrive in October as hostelries charged $8.40 more per night over rates a year ago.
The 7 percent boost pushed average countywide hotel rates to $127.60. At the same time, average hotel occupancy across the county hovered at just below 80 percent, compared with 76 percent a year ago.
October’s figures, the most recent available from Los Angeles hotel industry watcher PKF Consulting, continued a year-to-date trend that has seen the average rate grow 7 percent, or $122.70 compared with $114.77 a year earlier, while occupancy has held steady at about 78 percent.
