A 43% Drop in California Manufacturing Jobs

Covering for the Marxist Democrats

• With the election only 90 days away, the Leftist Los Angeles Times wrote a kiss-ass puff piece in their business section talking about how California businesses are so much more productive than they used to be.
• But even the Times had to work in the hard truth that manufacturing jobs are flooding out of the People's Republic of California in search of a home with lower taxes and fewer big government regulations.

The Los Angeles Times reports the output of state factories has surged 73% during the last 15 years — twice as fast as the rest of the nation — even as the sector bleeds jobs, according to a new report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

The surge in production owes itself to innovations in machinery and materials, digitization and computing power, along with a strong network of industry clusters.

Under pressure from automation, offshoring and aggressive cost-cutting, the state's manufacturing workforce shriveled to 1.2 million in 2012 from 2.1 million jobs in 1990 — a faster rate of decline than the nation as a whole.

 

The difference exceeds the total number of current manufacturing positions in all of Southern California.

"The composition of manufacturing is going to change and has been changing," LAEDC economist Christine Cooper said. "It's becoming more advanced and technologically intensive. And it's more lean."

Overall, the lower half of the state accounts for two-thirds of total manufacturing employment in the state, with more than 814,000 workers.

Los Angeles County had more than 365,500 manufacturing jobs in 2012, making up 9.2% of total countywide employment and nearly 30% of all manufacturing jobs across the state. As a producer, the region is most competitive in the fashion and aerospace industries.

But as California's economy diversifies, manufacturing is becoming a less dominant part of the state's economic identity.

Manufacturing now accounts for 10.7% of the total value of all goods and services produced in the state, compared with 11.6% in 1990.

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