10% unemployment in LA? (Orange, Fullerton: live, restaurants, bars)

[jm1982]

With 10% unemployment in L.A it makes you wonder when people say things like :

"Well of course I have to live in L.A..this is where the work is/where the jobs are"

It's like you want to ask them...have you seen how BAD unemployment is?

Combined with high housing costs,etc doesn't seem like a smart place to be if you are looking for work...

Seems to make as much sense as "I know I won't be able to buy a home in L.A...but jobs pay SOOO much more here"..

"I will just continue to rent for decades and invest all my "savings" "

I wonder how many people that didn't buy a house in the late 90s actually made over 1200% returns from then till now. Which is about what your return would be on a downpayment on a 300k house in West LA back then..that's not including what the mortgage paydown would be?

Imagine the return with an FHA loan back then!

[ccm123]

LA has really changed a lot. I moved there from the Bay Area, in the 80's, to attend UCLA, and when I graduated, professional jobs were pretty plentiful. I interviewed with a firm and got my first professional job there. It was not uncommon for college graduates during those years, from public universities, to walk away with 2-3 offers, from professional firms. Jobs were much easier to find, back then.

I have heard, but have not verified, that the business climate in LA City is really "anti-business"/"business unfriendly", which causes firms to leave. Any truth to this? Any other comments on the unemployment situation?

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by ccm123

LA has really changed a lot. I moved there from the Bay Area, in the 80's, to attend UCLA, and when I graduated, professional jobs were pretty plentiful. I interviewed with a firm and got my first professional job there. It was not uncommon for college graduates during those years, from public universities, to walk away with 2-3 offers, from professional firms. Jobs were much easier to find, back then.

I have heard, but have not verified, that the business climate in LA City is really "anti-business"/"business unfriendly", which causes firms to leave. Any truth to this? Any other comments on the unemployment situation?

As all of you know I am as lefty as they come, but I have to say that LA is a sea of red tape. My god the nerve of this city to burden small businesses with all this insane red tape. It's not even sensible regulation it's just corruption and bloated bureaucracy.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by hipcat

I think those are people who just filed for unemployment. I think the number of unemployed is a bit higher than 10%.

How the Government Measures Unemployment

[jm1982]

CA in general seems to be rated pretty low as a state for places to do business. That could place a big role in it.

CALIFORNIA was ranked #48 out of 50 on this list of most/least business friendly states

The Most (And Least) Business Friendly States - Forbes

I am sure this plays a big role in unemployment.

A lot of people like to make fun of Texas ...but they have 6.4% unemployment.. and #9 on that list..

If you are looking for work it seems like it makes sense to move to one of those states.

[Cream1]

Originally Posted by jm1982

With 10% unemployment in L.A it makes you wonder when people say things like :

"Well of course I have to live in L.A..this is where the work is/where the jobs are"

It's like you want to ask them...have you seen how BAD unemployment is?

Combined with high housing costs,etc doesn't seem like a smart place to be if you are looking for work...

Seems to make as much sense as "I know I won't be able to buy a home in L.A...but jobs pay SOOO much more here"..

"I will just continue to rent for decades and invest all my "savings" "

I wonder how many people that didn't buy a house in the late 90s actually made over 1200% returns from then till now. Which is about what your return would be on a downpayment on a 300k house in West LA back then..that's not including what the mortgage paydown would be?

Imagine the return with an FHA loan back then!

That's because 90% of people here are employed.

[jm1982]

Right but it's strange people would think they can't get a job somewhere else .. Especially if they are doing a min wage type of job .

[Ingenere]

Originally Posted by Howiester

That's because 90% of people here are employed.

aka you do not understand how employment statistics work.

[stopthief33]

There are some footnotes that come with that number, I feel. As an example, a former roommate of mine worked in the entertainment industry doing grip work and later pulling focus in the camera dept. He had steady work, would be on location for 4-5 months at a time when he started getting bigger feature film work. He would also have 2-3 month stints where nothing was going on. When he didn't have anything lined up he'd immediately file for unemployment. From what he told me this is pretty common for those on crew. Thousands of people in LA work in the entertainment industry in these types of jobs, not only on movies but also still photography, their income is not "stable" but when they do work they make good money. This could be like a freelance retoucher to a stylist assistant just starting out; there are hundreds of people in some form of freelance or independent contractor situation like this and they will file for unemployment the second they see no work coming in for the next month -even if they have 10 grand in their bank account and they've been getting frequent work prior to that. Thinking of all those people leads me to believe the LA unemployment rate is misrepresented to an extent more than, say Topeka, Kansas' unemployment statistic.

That said, I do believe, as a new transplant or recent graduate without a mainline into a company, it is just as hard to find work in LA (in your field, in your pay grade) as it is to find a reasonable apartment in a good area. I've lived here my whole life and I've found no matter what the economic climate, finding an ideal job has been pretty much on par with searches on finding an ideal living situation in the past. You get the jobs by cultivating relationships and that comes with a bit of time. This city is so fragmented, with so many people it's much more likely you'll land a job through someone you know rather than a blind interview. That's just my experience.

[mayorhaggar]

Yeah the job market sucks, and wages are ridiculously low compared to the cost of an apartment in a halfway decent area. There are jobs out there but for me they always seemed to be in stupid locations that are hard to get to from affordable areas, like Century City or the middle of Orange County. It sucks to have to commute like 2 hours on crappy buses just to get to some $12 an hour job.