Forgotten Angelenos.

IT seems paradoxical to be describing a "poverty crisis" in these flush economic times. Just last week, the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. projected that non-farm employment next year would grow by nearly 75,000 jobs - thus recovering all the jobs lost during the recession of the early `90s. Those numbers come amid a spectacular boom in multimedia, trade and financial services, all industries that tend to make people very rich.

But there is another side to the story. It's the side that has nearly 2 million Angelenos below the poverty line of $16,534 (for a family of four). It's the side of minimum-wage jobs, of rundown apartments, of substandard health care, of limited job skills, of inadequate public education, of incursions by gangs and drugs. And despite some encouraging signs - the percentage of those at or below the poverty level has slipped to 19 percent in 1999 from a high of 24 percent in 1995 - the overall trend line points to an ever-growing division of haves and have-nots.

Have-nots, of course, are a given in most any capitalist society, no matter what the economic temperature happens to be. They include the chronic poor who don't work and are unable to rise from a basic subsistence level - and for whom government relief is the ultimate last resort.

But it's L.A.'s working poor who must be the focus of much of the attention. These are the people who eke out livings as janitors, housekeepers, gardeners, day laborers and who would, in different times, look to advance themselves as factory workers or small-business owners.

The problem is that there has been a huge increase in the number of working poor in L.A. and many of them lack the skill sets to advance much beyond minimum-wage work. And even if they could, there are fewer and fewer of those factory jobs that have brought the promise of upward mobility.

The result is a stunning gap between wage earners in the top 10 percent and bottom 10 percent. In 1967, the wage ratio was 5 to 1; today, it's almost 10 to 1.

These are tough issues to wrestle with, especially at a time when the stock market keeps going up, consumer confidence is high and national unemployment hovers around 4 percent. Such buoyancy leads to myopia - and with it, quick-draw conclusions that anyone who wants a job can get a job.

To be sure, that's true. The question is, what kind of job? And what kind of future?

For economies to stay dynamic, they require certain ingredients. One is a vibrant labor pool that can be tapped for all kinds of jobs, not just those at the lower rung. In L.A., that appears to be missing.

Two is an adequate educational system that creates the needed labor pool. In L.A., that also is missing.

Three is a thriving middle class that can serve as a kind of foundation for the upper- and lower-income groups. In L.A., the middle class is steadily shrinking.

The have/have-not dilemma has its obvious social consequences, but the ultimate resolution will have a profound economic impact. If there is this much division at a time of such prosperity, what can be expected when times get tougher? What happens if the working poor cannot even get those low-wage jobs?

Business and government had better start considering the possibilities, because the clock is ticking.