Manufacturing still top job provider in Southern California

There were mixed trends in manufacturing in Southern California during 2006, according to “Manufacturing in Southern California,” which was released March 28 by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) in conjunction with the WESTEC Manufacturing Technology Exposition and Conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center. “Orange and Ventura Counties, and the Riverside-San Bernardino area all added factory jobs during 2006, which was counter to the national trend,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist, LAEDC. “However, Los Angeles County saw 9,400 factory jobs disappear from 2005 to 2006. Despite this, Los Angeles County was still the nation’s number one manufacturing center.Its 2006 manufacturing employment average of 462,300 jobs was well ahead of number two Chicago’s average of 390,200 jobs. Detroit remained in third place with 268,800 jobs.” The latter two areas also experienced job losses. The LAEDC report calculated that there were 911,000 manufacturing jobs in Southern California during 2006 (this region is defined as the Los Angeles five-county area plus San Diego County). “This would make the area the nation’s third-largest manufacturing ‘state,’ behind California (1,505,000 jobs) and Texas (926,000 jobs),” noted Kyser. “What are the implications of this large factory workforce,” asked Kyser. “This sector represents a huge market for all types of suppliers (goods and services) and means that local manufacturers can find inputs right in their backyard.”