Koreatown squeeze.

Behind the facade of boom times in Koreatown is a nigh rate of poverty among the mostly Hispanic and Asian immigrant population, as demonstrated in a new study by the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates.

"There's a really large number of immigrants who are living and working in Koreatown and who aren't feeling the boom," said Vy Nguyen, lead organizer of KIWA. "What we see happening is those jobs in Koreatown are all low-wage jobs."

The goal of the six-month study was to provide a clear economic and analytical portrait of the area. "We wanted to have the statistics ... when talking to business owners and elected officials," Nguyen said.

The combination of low wages--almost 35 percent of the population earns less than $15,000 a year--high rents and jobs with no health insurance means that working families are "feeling the squeeze," she said.

Edward J. Park, an associate professor at Loyola Marymount University who wrote the report with the association, said it's surprising to see the poverty in the shadow of Wilshire Boulevard's skyscrapers. "There are such visible signs of economic investment and revitalization," Park said. "What we have is the disconnect between the broader Koreatown seeming to do well, but the plight of the working poor worsening."