L.A.’s Economy Hit Bump in August

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While the state’s economy picked up steam in August, L.A.’s economic expansion hit a bump in the road as the unemployment rate shot up and payroll job growth stalled out.


According to state Employment Development Department figures released Friday, L.A. County’s unemployment rate jumped to 4.8 percent in August from a revised 4.5 percent figure for July and is now only a smidgeon below the 4.9 percent reading from August 2005.


Payroll job growth, which had been fairly robust in recent months, remained essentially flat in August, increasing by 3,300 jobs, or less than one-tenth of one percent.


This contrasts with a substantial statewide jump in non-farm payroll jobs of 37,000 from July as growth was particularly robust in the Inland Empire and the Oakland area.


“This is a tad disappointing for L.A.,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “The big question now is whether this mediocre performance continues into the fall; if it does, then it would appear the local economic expansion may have run out of steam.”


Kyser noted that of particular concern is a year-over-year drop in the civilian employment figures, which measures household employment and includes participants in the so-called “informal workforce,” of contract workers and the self-employed.


For much of the past two years, L.A. County had consistently been posting annual civilian employment growth rates of between 2 percent and 3 percent; but the August figure of 4,811,400 represented a drop of 12,000 jobs from August 2005.

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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