L.A. Group Strives to Build a Better Workforce

Faced with new indications that the Los Angeles economy is heading in a perilous direction, the city’s workforce development board gathered together several dozen business and community leaders Thursday to look for ways to help.

Los Angeles has numerous economic challenges, including a growing underground economy, a large and poorly educated immigrant workforce, and a widening gap between high-wage and low-wage jobs, according to findings of the city-commissioned Los Angeles Economy Project.

Using data from the 2000 census, the study found that 28% of Los Angeles adults had less than a high school education, and more than 10% made it no further than sixth grade. Both numbers are well above the national average, as well as the averages for other cities, including New York, Chicago, San Diego and Mobile, Ala.

Denise Fairchild, a mayoral advisor on economic development in South Los Angeles and president of the Community Development Technologies Center, called the findings a depressing wake-up call.

“We need to stimulate investment in good-wage jobs, ensure that workers have the skills they need to get the work, and make sure there is infrastructure that connects the two,” she said.

Job growth in Los Angeles has been anemic compared with the state and country, and has been concentrated in the relatively affluent northern and western parts of the city. Central Los Angeles lost jobs between 1996 and 2002.

As in much of the country, manufacturing jobs declined while service jobs grew, according to the study.

“This is not a problem that is going to solve itself,” said Dan Flaming, president of the Economic Roundtable and a lead researcher in the project.

The workshop, at the FAME Renaissance Center in South Los Angeles, was one of a series being staged to highlight findings of the study. It was sponsored by the Workforce Investment Board, a federally funded group appointed by the mayor that, among other things, operates employment centers to help people find jobs.

Bruce Stenslie, who directs the Los Angeles workforce board, told the gathering he hoped to move the group toward more strategic workforce development projects -- by identifying growing industries and training workers for them. He said he also wants to work more closely with business, community and labor groups to think up new development approaches.

No action was taken Thursday. The point was to disseminate the research, Stenslie said.

“You can’t effectively address an issue if you’re not acknowledging the problem,” he said.