Business in the San Fernando Valley couldn’t be better, according to a report released by Cal State Northridge. But L.A. County’s top economist said an over-reliance on the entertainment industry and some other nagging problems could cause trouble in the future.
“Be ready for the unexpected,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., at a daylong Valley economic forecast session sponsored by the Valley Industry & Commerce Association.
Kyser was among several at the conference who spoke to the need for the Valley to nurture a diversified economy, one made up of more than just the entertainment and retail industries. “We are over-exposed in entertainment,” Kyser said.
He predicted that if the entertainment industry is greatly affected by a possible writers’ and actors’ strike in 2001, the rest of the world would characterize L.A. as a one-industry town.
The motion picture and television production industry employs more than 100,000 workers with an annual payroll of $6.15 billion, accounting for 15.7 percent of the Valley’s workforce and almost 25 percent of its total personal income, according to the “Report on Findings on the San Fernando Valley Economy 2000-2001.”
Entertainment-sector employment was up more than 10 percent in 1999 after remaining flat the previous two years, according to the CSUN report.
The movie/TV production sector’s total Valley payroll (103,194 workers) was only exceeded by that of the retail sector (113,699 workers). Technology-based manufacturing was the Valley’s third-largest source of employment, providing 51,217 jobs.
While the number of days of location filming in all of Los Angeles changed little in the last two years (about 38,000 each year), days of filming in the Valley jumped from 6,907 in 1998-99 to 10,251 in 1999-2000.
“You can see the huge footprint the entertainment industry has in the Valley,” said Shirley Svorny, director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at CSUN.
Much of the recent activity in film and TV production could be attributed to studios and production companies “stocking up” on product in anticipation of expected strikes in 2001.
