Following a successful sold-out UCLA Anderson Forecast quarterly event, Forecast Director Ed Leamer and Dean Judy Olian have a published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Business Journal calling for public reform. On April 2, the Forecast event, “Solutions for Our City,” highlighted Los Angeles’ dismal job outlook and solutions to the several decade slide in growth.
As Leamer and Olian write:
“Cleveland and Detroit – cities that have become shorthand for widespread urban failure – have nothing on Los Angeles when it comes to long-term decline in payroll jobs. Dead last among major U.S. cities, Los Angeles has lost a painful 3.1 percent of its payroll jobs since 1990, even as the population grew nearly 11 percent. By contrast, payroll jobs in the United States overall grew by 26 percent during the same period.”
At the Forecast event, the first quarterly report of 2014, the forecasters predicted approximately 3 percent GDP growth through 2016, despite the harsh winter. On the state level, they predicted the recent California drought should have minimal effect on the state economy outside of certain agricultural sectors.
On the local level, the team highlighted a variety of problems plaguing the Los Angeles economy, including the high cost of housing and commuting, a poor environment for business and the relatively low education levels of the local population.
Again, as Leamer and Olian write:
“It’s time for Los Angeles to wake up; in fact, it’s well past time.”
For more on the Forecast head to their homepage.
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