Thousands of Jobless Blame Quake Damage

More than 10,000 people lost their jobs or a portion of their wages because of earthquake-related damage to businesses, but the employment rate countywide could remain stable or even rise slightly because of a corresponding increase in construction jobs, officials and economists said Tuesday.

Some 10,154 people--half of them in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys--blamed quake damage when they filed for unemployment benefits in the past two weeks, state officials said. The figures do not include hundreds of other workers whom officials say have applied for unemployment benefits under a federal disaster assistance program aimed at the self-employed, who do not qualify for state benefits.

Workers in the retail sector, including shopping malls and restaurants, were the hardest hit by the Jan. 17 temblor, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County, a private nonprofit agency affiliated with county government.

But the loss of those jobs could be offset by an increase in construction jobs, Kyser said.

“It’s really hard to come up with employment impacts yet,” Kyser said. “We found that out after the riots. Everybody expected unemployment applications to surge then, but they went up by less than 1,000.”

Los Angeles County’s overall unemployment rate had already dipped to 8.9% in December, down nearly a percentage point from the year before, said Jay Horowitz, an analyst with the state Employment Development Department.

That left about 387,000 of the county’s 3.97 million workers unemployed as 1993 rolled to a close, he said.

But despite the upturn, the construction trades continued to suffer, with about 37,000 fewer jobs late last year than the 138,000 in late 1989--a 26% drop, Kyser said.

“Construction should really boom,” Horowitz said, but the exact number of jobs to be created cannot be determined yet.

Some construction union officials said there is already more work because of the earthquake. Bill Rodgers, business manager for Plasterers Local 2 in Burbank, said he has sent out 80 unemployed plasterers on jobs since the quake toppled parking structures and apartments.

“We feel bad about the earthquake, but it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Southern California construction industry,” Rodgers said. “There’s a sense of optimism here that we haven’t seen in several months,” since the seasonal upswing in summer jobs.

Regardless of the long-term economic effects of the quake, the impact was immediate at unemployment offices nearest the epicenter, from Canoga Park to Santa Clarita, where clerks have been working overtime or returned early from vacation to serve long lines of former employees of damaged shopping malls and restaurants for the past two weeks.

In the state unemployment office in the city of San Fernando, for instance, 2,000 people applied for benefits in the two weeks after the quake, double the usual number of claims, manager Irma Flint said.

“It puts a great deal of strain on us,” Flint said. “We don’t have a lot of staff, so we are taking them (earthquake victims) in groups of 20 or giving them appointments to come back.”

In the Valley, three shopping malls--Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, Laurel Plaza and Northridge Fashion Center--remain closed because of the quake, leaving about 4,000 workers unemployed at least temporarily, mall administrators said.

Another reason for the upsurge in applications is a federally funded program that provides benefits for self-employed people and others who would otherwise not have been employed long enough in one job to qualify.

Elizabeth Blanco, 19, is one of those who lost her job as a salesclerk at the Fallbrook mall when her store closed to repair earthquake damage. Blanco had worked there for two months, not enough time to qualify for benefits under the usual guidelines, but the relaxed eligibility requirements have allowed her to receive $87 a week, just enough to feed her family and diaper her 3-month-old son, Walter.

After her Reseda apartment was red-tagged, Blanco, her boyfriend and baby were forced to live out of their car.

“I feel strange,” Blanco said. “I never thought this would happen to me.”

Andrea Mandel, 28, of Van Nuys had worked at the Broadway in Northridge Fashion Center for two months before the store was severely damaged in the quake. It may not reopen for a year, a mall spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, Mandel is living on $150 a week in unemployment benefits, less than half the $360 she earned at the store.

“It will put me behind in a lot of my bills,” she said. “It’s going to be hard.”

The maximum anyone can receive in unemployment benefits is $230 a week, which goes to those who made at least $30,000 a year when they were employed.

The application process is difficult for some people who work irregular hours, including Lari Benadon, 47, of Valley Village. Since the earthquake, her hours as a saleswoman at the Eddie Bauer store in Sherman Oaks Fashion Square have varied drastically.

The store is closed due to quake damage, but cleanup work gave her 30 hours last week. This week, with the store in order and no customers to wait on, Benadon was offered only eight hours.

Florence Hymes, 70, of Tarzana was dealt a “double whammy” after the quake. Her condominium not only sustained severe damage, but she lost her job as a salesclerk at Saks Fifth Avenue in the Promenade mall in Woodland Hills. The store is permanently closed.

The job loss has robbed her of more than her salary.

“My job was my only source of income besides Social Security,” Hymes said. “Saks was my whole life.”

Times staff writer Tracey Kaplan contributed to this story.