Outside the manufacturing industry, the housing industry, and the leisure industry, now is a great time to seek Los Angeles employment. The entertainment and tech industries remain strong in Los Angeles, and housing prices have fallen to the extent that “average people” can afford to live in L. A. once again. The Los Angeles employment market may have shrunk in 2008, but given that it’s one of the largest employment markets in the country, the city will definitely recover swiftly once the economic crisis passes.
A Nation Unto Itself
Just how large is the economy in Los Angeles? The Los Angeles employment market is so large that it’s almost incomparable to other cities in the United States. The five-county area that makes up the larger Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to twenty million people – if these counties were their own state, it would be the fourth most populous state in the nation. The gross metropolitan product, or GMP, of the Los Angeles area was nearly $700 billion in 2007, making it the second largest economic center in the Western Hemisphere (the largest is New York City). And if Los Angeles was its own country, it would have the seventeenth highest GDP in the world. What makes the gears of the Los Angeles economy turn? The two largest industries in the area are entertainment and international trade.
The Land of Movie Stars
For anyone seeking employment in the entertainment industry, Los Angeles is still the place to be. Within the city of Los Angeles itself are the corporate headquarters of:
20th Century Fox
The Jim Henson Company
Paramount Pictures
Fox Sports Net
And in Los Angeles County are more:
The Walt Disney Company (and don’t forget about Disney Land!)
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (ie, the home of the Oscars)
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Columbia Pictures
Dreamworks
Several hundred thousand people are employed by these entertainment giants – and remember that they’re not all creative filmmakers. Corporations of their size employ huge support staffs, from CPAs and IT experts to human resources professionals. The skill sets required by the entertainment industry are vast.
Los Angeles Employment Outside the Entertainment Industry
But there’s more happening in Los Angeles than just the entertainment industry. The Port of Los Angeles, for example, is the nation’s busiest seaport, giving Los Angeles a reputation as being a center of international trade. Los Angeles’ top trading partners included China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea. In fact, it is likely that the majority of consumer electronics, toys, and cars originating in Asia first made landfall in the Port of Los Angeles. The Port of Los Angeles is also the largest cruise ship center on the west coast. Princess Cruises is headquartered in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles used to have ample employment in the financial services industry, but even before the banking crisis of 2008, these jobs had begun to move elsewhere. Therefore, while L. A. did experience job loss in the financial services sector, the impact to the overall health of the economy was not as severe as it would have been ten or fifteen years ago.
And surprisingly, despite all the international corporations who call Los Angeles home, the largest private sector employer in the Los Angeles employment market is the University of Southern California. The university contributes close to $4 billion to the city’s annual economy.
Los Angeles Employment Resources
Online: The L. A. Times newspaper, the area’s largest, maintains a huge job database online at LATimes.com. “Jobs” is the very first link in the top right-hand corner of the page. Other online databases that specialize in Los Angeles employment include the Los Angeles Job Bank (LosAngelesJobBank.com) and Working World (WorkingWorld.com).
Job Fairs: L. A. is home to many annual job fairs for Los Angeles employment seekers. There’s an annual Diversity Employment Day Career Fair, an annual job fair in southern Los Angeles, as well as job fairs that cater to certain groups – Hispanic job fairs, transgender job fairs, African American job fairs, and more.
Los Angeles employment agencies: Los Angeles is famous for its struggling young actors, actresses, writers, and musicians who seek various temp work through employment agencies. Because of this, Los Angeles is also starting to become famous for its many employment agencies. Here are a few of them:
Adecco (AdeccoUSA.com): This is the world’s largest employment agency. Its L. A. office is located close to the beach, on Santa Monica Blvd.
Kelly Services, Inc. (KellyServices.com): Kelly Services used to be famous for providing businesses with secretaries, but the employment agency today includes divisions such as Kelly Law Registry, which places lawyers; Kelly Scientific Resources, which places scientists; and Kelly Healthcare Resources, which places nurses. L. A. has several Kelly branches – Kelly offices are located in Glendale, Beverly Hills, Santa Fe Springs, and several within Los Angeles itself.
Kforce, Inc. (Kforce.com): Kforce places white collar workers in technology, healthcare, accounting, and clinical research.
What It’s Like Living and Working in Los Angeles
Los Angeles employment seekers are often drawn to the southern California atmosphere – the entertainment industry, the beaches, the warm weather, the recreational opportunities, the nightlife. But Los Angeles is also a notoriously expensive place to live, crime in certain areas is very bad, and famous Los Angeles pollution is still some of the worst in the country, despite recent improvements. What is it like to actually live and work in Los Angeles?
Cost of Living: Yes, the cost of living in Los Angeles is high. On par with New York City, Los Angeles is one of the most expensive places in the United States to live. But average listing prices for homes have fallen as a result of the housing crisis, driving the cost of living down for the first time in at least a decade. The average listing price of a home in downtown Los Angeles is $295,000. This figure is about middle of the road when compared to most of L. A.’s suburbs. The elite neighborhoods in Los Angeles, however (such as Melrose, Bel Air, and Hollywood), average listing prices that still soar well over $1 million despite falling housing prices in the area.
Weather in Los Angeles: Television shows would have viewers believe that Los Angeles experiences only one kind of weather – the good kind. However, the truth is that Los Angeles weather is not as desirable as it might first appear. First, Los Angeles is frequently foggy – and that’s not counting the Los Angeles smog. In the winter it’s chilly, with Santa Ana winds frequently making the city a gusty place to be. And Los Angeles is, after all, a desert. Only about fifteen inches per year fall in L. A.
Living in Los Angeles isn’t for everyone. It is a huge, sprawling, crowded, and bustling city, which appeals to some people but doesn’t appeal to others. The traffic may be the worst in the country, contributing to the air pollution that hangs over the city, despite improvements in recent years. But Los Angeles is also an exciting place to be, filled with beaches, incredible diversity of culture and language, and is the epicenter of American (and perhaps worldwide) entertainment. And Los Angeles employment, while it has declined during the recession, is poised to make a strong comeback in the months to come.
