Is Disneyland OC's main economy? (Los Angeles, Anaheim: high school, minimum wage, rooftop)

[Ol' Wanderer]

Originally Posted by DewDropInn

I'm very surprised. No one in your family or circle of friends did a stint working at Disneyland while they were in college? Between the park and Knotts I can easily name 25 people who worked in one or the other to pay for school.

Out of our very large and combined families, only one of us did. My husband, while in college.

It was 1971, the pay at Disneyland was $1.50/hr, plus $3 food allowance per work day. After two weeks, they told him to cut his hair, which was never long at all but thick and bushy. He did. Two weeks later, they told him to cut again and while he was at it, make sure to eliminate the sideburns. He didn't go back to the barber immediately, so they called on him again. He replied that he didn't make enough money for two haircuts in two weeks. They told him he had two choices, take it or leave it, and oh, did he know that if he disobeyed a direct order, he would never be able to work for Disney again? He left.

His stint with Disneyland lasted one month. Right after that, he found a job with an advertising company that lasted until he graduated from college. They didn't ask for many haircuts there.

[VLWH]

Originally Posted by Charles in PGI

Disneyland website states that there are 20,000 direct Disneyland resort employees, "making it Orange County's largest employer and one of the largest single-site private employers in the state."

The claim within the quotation marks is a huge exaggeration. OC population is more than 3 millions, with 64% between the age of 18 and 65, that's about 2 millions people who are still in the work force or able to work. Therefore, Disneyland's 20,000 workers, or 1% of OC population, are at most only a drop in the bucket of OC employment. Somebody at Disney Corporation is not good at matching the numbers to the claim.

Correct..... 20k direct with another 3,800 third party staff and over 60k indirect employees (hotels, outside restaurants, car services, etc....)


The Walt Disney Company - News from the Disney Board - March 04, 2005

[Ol' Wanderer]

Originally Posted by VLWH

Correct..... 20k direct with another 3,800 third party staff and over 60k indirect employees (hotels, outside restaurants, car services, etc....)

The operative word used on that website is "support," as in "The Disneyland Resort supports 65,700 jobs in southern California."

"Support" has many different meanings as we know it. If a trucking company provides service to Disneyland as well as a dozen other companies, would that trucking company goes under the category of being supported by Disneyland or by other companies? When a large strawberry farmer with hundreds of employees provides their fruits to Disneyland, Knott's, Lulu's Crêperie Café, and White House Restaurant, who would earn the claim of being the supporter?

Same goes with third party staff.

PS: Just realized that my reply is similar to Coldjensens' comment, as quote:

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

How is "related to the parks" defined? For example Medieval Times definitely gets business from the Disney tourist crowd, but they exist in other cities without a Disney (Chicago for example). So are their employees counted as related to the parks? The same is true of the hotels and restaurants. There would be some hotel business without DisneyLand, how much of it is Disney related?

[Ol' Wanderer]

Originally Posted by DewDropInn

(Which means you didn't have anyone to sign you in for free? Horrors, lol.)

Disneyland gets plenty of our support even though we know no one who works there. With so many passholders in our family, Club 33 should give us our own table. Since my husband and I moved to FL, we have been Disney World passholders too. Maybe if we move to a completely different state far away from CA and FL both, then we can save that chunk of money every year.

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by Charles in PGI

He replied that he didn't make enough money for two haircuts in two weeks.

Love that line.

I know all about the Disney dress code. There is no fighting it. But that line gave it a pretty good shot, lol.

[wrcousert]

Originally Posted by DewDropInn

Love that line.

I know all about the Disney dress code. There is no fighting it. But that line gave it a pretty good shot, lol.

I wonder what they would have done if he had shaved his head?

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by dtran103

Actually, more people from LA go to OC for work then the other way around. OC is a powerhouse when it comes to jobs.

A lot of people are employed by Disneyland, but most I assume are very young. I knew people who worked at Disneyland in college and high school. But most of those offered by Disney are jobs rather than careers.

Likely that more of the Disney corporation career positions are at their headquarters in Burbank, rather than at the park in Anaheim.

[Anja T]

Disney, The Mouse House, runs Anaheim because they own Disneyland, the adventure theme park across the street, they own a piece of the Angels and Angel stadium, The Mighty Ducks hockey team and the Pond where the Mighty Ducks play. Disney owns the mayor, city council and the Anaheim cops. If Disney has a problem Anaheim PD drops what they doing to help Disney. Disney may not be the top employer in OC.

OC has a $9 Billion garment manufacturing industry for Surf Wear in 2005 (this is ONLY surf wear and does not include regular clothing or skater clothing). I do not know today's figures. This amount stuck in my head because it shocked me. In addition to Surf Wear, OC is the garment manufacturing hub for other kinds of garments. If you buy a surf wear brand their headquarters are in OC and part of their manufacturing is located here as well. Roxy, Quicksilver, OP, Ezekiel, Paul Frank Industries (Julius the Monkey), Perry Ellis, etc. I can't think of all of them off the top of my head. Van's skate shoes are from OC and have been the skater shoe of choice for skaters since they started in the 80s. My brother's friends used to skate on the pro skater team for Van's. A lot of early pro skaters came out of Anaheim. From my Jr. High 8 kids were signed for pro teams within 2 years. 12-14 year old kids went to tour the world as pro skaters. I didn't realize they were famous until the groupies showed up on my doorstep asking for autographs. They came to our house because the kidney shaped pool was drained to be acid washed. All the pro and amateur skaters knew our pool was empty and they wanted to skate the bowl. I only the pros into the pool as I was afraid an amateur would fall, crack their head open (this was before helmets) or break a bone and what would I tell my parents then? The pro skater business is HUGE in OC for manufacturing wheels, boards, axles (or whatever they are called, it has been a long since I skated), skater clothing, helmets, etc.

This is out of date since it is for 2002-2003. I saw an article on the top 20 employers in OC and Disney did not make the list. Sometimes the employment head counts for Disney are deceptive as they bulk together the Anaheim theme park head counts with the Burbank film and TV studio head counts. A ton of people work on the Disney lot! Largest Employers

FYI - The Disney studio pays 20% less than all other film and TV studios. Their reasoning is, "We are Disney! You should be happy to have Disney on your resume! We are training you so you can work for Universal, 20th Century Fox, Sony, Warner Bros, Bruckheimer, HBO, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc." Disney is cheap when it comes to their film and TV people. They are cheap, cheap, cheap. I think it is funny that people from other states want to work in Hollywood and do not realize Disney will *********!

2008 Best Companies to Work For in OC. All are smaller than Disney, but you get the idea of what is out there. Working for the gaming company Blizzard is highly desirable. They are not the only gaming co. in OC. OC Metro - Best Companies to work for in Orange County OC

Tech Industry in 2007. Can't find anything newer. www.ocmetro.com/t-Cover_Tech_Coast.aspx

This gives you an overview of jobs available and industries located here other than Disney. Some of our hospitals are HUGE employers. Hoag Hospital is really, really big and a very large employer. CHOC (Childrens Hospital of OC) in Orange is a big hospital.

[MS313]

Originally Posted by Charles in PGI

Out of our very large and combined families, only one of us did. My husband, while in college.

It was 1971, the pay at Disneyland was $1.50/hr, plus $3 food allowance per work day. After two weeks, they told him to cut his hair, which was never long at all but thick and bushy. He did. Two weeks later, they told him to cut again and while he was at it, make sure to eliminate the sideburns. He didn't go back to the barber immediately, so they called on him again. He replied that he didn't make enough money for two haircuts in two weeks. They told him he had two choices, take it or leave it, and oh, did he know that if he disobeyed a direct order, he would never be able to work for Disney again? He left.

His stint with Disneyland lasted one month. Right after that, he found a job with an advertising company that lasted until he graduated from college. They didn't ask for many haircuts there.

Oh hell naw. Couldn't work there. and for $1.50 an hour at that??? K-9's get paid more than that on dog food.

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by Anja T

OC has a $9 Billion garment manufacturing industry for Surf Wear in 2005 (this is ONLY surf wear and does not include regular clothing or skater clothing). I do not know today's figures. This amount stuck in my head because it shocked me. In addition to Surf Wear, OC is the garment manufacturing hub for other kinds of garments. If you buy a surf wear brand their headquarters are in OC and part of their manufacturing is located here as well. Roxy, Quicksilver, OP, Ezekiel, Paul Frank Industries (Julius the Monkey), Perry Ellis, etc.

Kanvas by Katin is another one, based in Surfside