Digest/28″/turner/mike1st/mark2nd
Apparel Employment Dropping
New payroll data shows that garment-industry employment has declined by more than 3 percent over the past year in California.
The state’s monthly payroll estimates, based on surveys of employers, previously had shown apparel-industry employment growing at a rate of 4 percent to 5 percent this year. But the new, more-comprehensive payroll data from all businesses that paid taxes in the first quarter showed that garment-trade employment is actually shrinking. The employment shrinkage is blamed on cheap imports from Asia and an increasing shift of production to Latin America.
Technical Difficulties on Rocket
Boeing Co.’s Rocketdyne facility in Canoga Park is experiencing technical problems on its component for a revolutionary rocket engine. Those problems will delay delivery of the engine by seven months and add $36 million to its cost.
Rocketdyne is a subcontractor working on the X-33, a reusable rocket plane that is a key to NASA’s effort to develop a low-cost vehicle for launching payloads into space. Rocketdyne is having troubles with bonding high-temperature parts to the engine.
The X-33 is an experimental project intended to lead to production of a replacement for the space shuttle fleet. The lead contractor on the $941 million project is Lockheed Martin Corp.
Older Screenwriters Phased Out
Women and minority screenwriters are making progress in narrowing the pay gap with their white male counterparts, but older writers are increasingly being phased out of the business, according to a study of Hollywood writers commissioned by the Writers Guild of America West.
Ten years ago, almost 50 percent of guild members in their 50s were employed. In 1997 that percentage had dropped to 32, according to the study. Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of TV and film writers in their 30s were employed last year.
The study also concluded that the pay gap between white male writers and their minority counterparts has nearly closed in the 1990s. The gap for women writers is also closing, at least in television, though only 23 percent of writing assignments went to women in 1997.
Forecast Predicts Clouds Ahead
Job growth is predicted to slow next year in Los Angeles County as the Asian financial crisis continues to impact the local economy, according to an annual forecast by Cal State Fullerton.
Job growth in the six Southern California counties will fall to 1.9 percent in 1999, compared to 2.5 percent this year, the forecast said. In Los Angeles County, job growth will be only 1.5 percent next year.
Particularly hard hit will be the county’s manufacturing industry, which will be impacted by a slowing national economy. In addition, growth is predicted to slow in the film industry.
Rising Star to Head NBC
Former Turner Broadcasting System executive Scott Sassa has been named president of NBC Entertainment and is the heir apparent to NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer.
Sassa, 39, is credited with building Turner’s cable TV business, but is seen as more of a business strategist than a creative expert. He joined NBC in 1996 and has been running its group of TV stations.
He replaces former NBC Entertainment chief Warren Littlefield, who is expected to enter a joint production arrangement with NBC. Sassa is being groomed to replace Ohlmeyer at the end of 1999 when Ohlmeyer’s contract expires.
Keating Leaves DMJM
Prominent architect Richard Keating has resigned as design chief at Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall, L.A. County’s biggest architectural and engineering firm.
Keating, who designed the Gas Co. tower in downtown L.A. and other major structures, plans to remain in Los Angeles, perhaps joining the local office of a national firm.
DMJM officials said they will merge Keating’s architectural unit into a new division that incorporates both interior and exterior design, under the direction of current interior design chief Lauren Rottet and architect Paul Danna, who is joining DMJM from rival HOK. Keating, Rottet and Danna were partners in an architectural firm that merged with DMJM in 1994.
City Gets Tough on Merchants
A dispute between Olvera Street retailers and the city of Los Angeles over rent increases turned ugly when about 15 merchants were mailed eviction notices last week.
A group of 45 merchants negotiating jointly with the city have not paid rent since June. About 30 of them had reached agreement with the city on rent increases, but sided with the 15 or so that have not agreed by withholding payment.
The remaining 30 merchants have been told by the city that unless they begin paying by this week, they too will be evicted.
European Venture for Avery Dennison
In a bid to increase its sales in Europe, Avery Dennison Corp. is forming a joint venture with a German firm, creating a new office-supplies manufacturer.
The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, would combine Avery Dennison’s European operations with the Zweckform Buro-Produkte unit of Steinbeis Holdings. That German division had 1997 sales of $120 million.
Pasadena-based Avery Dennison’s European operations accounted for about 38 percent of the company’s total 1997 sales of $3.3 billion. The new company will be called Avery Dennison Zweckform Office Products Europe and will be based in Oberlaindern, Germany.
Developer Convicted of Fraud
A Los Angeles real estate developer was sentenced to a year in jail and fined $10,000 for a multimillion-dollar land swindle that left as many as 2,500 low-income buyers living in primitive conditions in the Antelope Valley.
Marshall Redman, 69, had promised his victims that the undeveloped pieces of land he was selling would one day become communities with running water and electricity. He pleaded no contest to seven felony charges, including grand theft and filing false documents.
Many of Redman’s victims are currently living in makeshift houses on the undeveloped land, and may never see the return of their down payments, as banks continue a dispute over Redman’s assets.
Compiled by Dan Turner
