Between haves, have-nots
LOS ANGELES IS KNOWN as a city of haves and have-nots -- an uneasy mix of wealth on the coasts and in the hills, and poverty in the flats and valleys. It’s a barbell town, lore has it, where a dwindling middle class is squeezed out by heavy concentrations on either end of the income scale.
That stereotype, popularized in politicians’ speeches and pop culture references, is indeed based in fact. Los Angeles has the lowest share of middle-class neighborhoods of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, according to the Brookings Institution. But a surprising report released Monday by UCLA’s Anderson Forecast suggests that L.A.’s middle class may have life in it yet.
The paper, written by economist Jerry Nickelsburg, explains that while income inequality rose nationwide between 1999 and 2005, it fell in the Los Angeles region (to 61 from 68 on the 100-point Gini index, the academic standard for measuring inequality; zero is perfect income equality). What’s more, over that period L.A. added more than 100,000 middle-income jobs paying $45,000 to $60,000 a year and increased the ranks of paralegals, health services employees, graphic designers and warehouse workers.
It can be argued that the middle class had nowhere to go but up. In the 1990s, when the region’s aerospace industry collapsed, 200,000 manufacturing jobs evaporated. As workers fled the region, income gaps widened and, by 1999, Los Angeles “had achieved the dubious distinction of having inequality levels similar to those found in Mexico,” Nickelsburg writes.
Many considered the trend irreversible. But dire predictions that nothing would emerge to replace aerospace jobs proved wrong. As the economy rebounded, local and national demand for healthcare, financial services and construction skyrocketed, and L.A. was well positioned to meet the need. The region’s technical expertise was still relevant, and the new industries were collectively more diverse -- and less vulnerable to outside shock -- than the defense business.
It is true, and worrisome, that even with inequality in at least temporary retreat, most middle-class earners still can’t afford to buy a decent house here. And, as Nickelsburg emphasizes, aerospace (unlike the newer industries) provided plenty of manufacturing jobs that didn’t require much training. Today’s job seekers need more education to land jobs in the health and technical sectors, and they will probably always need more training if they want to stay employed in a rapidly changing economy.
But at least they’ll still have that chance.
