Demand Rises for Industrial Temps in L.A. County

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Manufacturing employment in Los Angeles County has been on the decline for the past two decades, but there may be some signs of a turnaround even if only temporary.


Adecco SA, a $26 billion global staffing firm with a significant local presence, has seen a surge in placement requests for temporary workers among manufacturing companies in the county.


“A lot of my manufacturing and distribution clients have been busier in the last couple of months than they were last year,” said Mara Klug, regional vice president in the company’s L.A. office, which services more than 200 local manufacturing companies each week.


Klug said it does not appear that the temporary employees are replacing permanent workers. Instead, the industry appears to be buoyed by a boom in exports, which have become more cost-competitive in foreign markets as the value of the dollar has declined.


“A lot of people probably are seeing more orders from abroad,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “They could be seeing increased orders but they’re not sure how long these new orders will stick around.”


The boost in temporary workers is a positive sign, he said, but overall manufacturing employment in the county is still declining. According to the LAEDC, manufacturing in the county should decrease in 2008 by about 5,000 jobs to 448,000. The sector has lost more than 150,000 jobs since 2000, but the declines are much smaller than they were during the 1990s.


War of Words

The Government Accountability Office is expected next month to announce whether the $35 billion aerial fueling tanker contract awarded in February to Northrop Grumman Corp. and its European partner should be overturned.

But in a sign of the times, the PR battle with passed-over favorite Boeing Co. is raging on the Internet.


The Chicago-based defense contractor has challenged the decision, saying the competition was slanted in favor of its competitors, which includes the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.


And recently, a security analyst and a group of Washington-based legislative assistants started TankerWarBlog.com, a Web site allowing “those concerned” about the award of the contract to a European entity to vent their frustrations.

One entry calls into question the job statistics touted by Los Angeles-based Northrop and EADS, which said their plane would create thousands of new jobs in Mobile, Ala. The blog refers to “all the phantom Alabama jobs it is supposedly creating.”


Northrop, for its part, has started a campaign it is calling “Why We Won,” which gives reasons it believes its plane is superior.


“The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman Corporation’s bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing’s in four of the five most important selection criteria,” the company said in a release.


Separately, Northrop announced several modest new contracts recently. Last week, the company won a $36.5 million deal to maintain a database of information about Medicare patients and a $25 million Navy contract to supply parts to the F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet.


The deals come on the heels of a $1.16 billion Navy contract awarded late last month for an advanced unmanned aircraft system.


Joining Forces

Los Angeles-based solar power company PermaCity Solar Inc. has acquired an Orange County competitor.


Terms of the deal were not announced.


PermaCity, which designs and installs photovoltaic roofing systems for commercial and residential buildings, announced the purchase of Mission Viejo-based New Millennium Power Inc., a full-service energy generation and photovoltaic installation company.


PermaCity Chief Executive Jonathan Port said the move is intended to position the company to take advantage of expected growth in the Southern California solar market.



Construction Contracts

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., the Pasadena-based construction giant, won a pair of new deals last week.


The company received a three-year contract to provide engineering and construction services to a new facility for Nyrstar NV, a Belgium-based zinc producer.


Terms of the deal were not disclosed.


Jacobs also won a $75 million deal to consult on a railroad tunneling project in New York City. The company will work with Liro Engineers Inc. on the seven-year project.


Staff reporter Richard Clough can be reached at

[email protected]

or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 251.

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