ROCKY ROAD TO THE WEST SOCAL ECONOMY WEATHERING STORM ON WALL STREET.Byline: Jesse Hiestand Staff Writer Maybe it's that perpetual SoCal optimism or the absence of mass layoffs at all but a few dot-coms, but Angelenos seem to be weathering the economic storm that has Wall Street reeling, economists said Monday. Unemployment and job growth figures in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County remain at levels they were a year ago when the Internet bubble See dot-com bubble. burst and the current economic downturn began to take shape. ``We've seen the bombs drop all around us, but none have landed here,'' said Jack Kyser, chief economist The Chief Economist is a single position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis. It is distinguished from the other economist positions by the broader scope of responsibility encompassing the of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. ``As long as there's still jobs out there, people think the market is something that happens in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and they don't link it up to their world.'' By that measure, the economic malaise has been kept at bay by Los Angeles County having a 5.2 percent unemployment rate in January, down just 0.4 percent from the year before. Nonfarm job growth in January of 2.2 percent was also at year-ago levels. That has kept consumer confidence from tanking, translating into busy mall traffic, restaurant bookings and other spending, especially on weekends. ``The tech sector meltdown is really getting ugly, so the key question is what does that do to the key confidence of the average person on the street?'' Kyser said. Not much so far in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , where consumer spending Consumer demand or consumption is also known as personal consumption expenditure. It is the largest part of aggregate demand or effective demand at the macroeconomic level. - which represents about two-thirds of economic activity on a national level - remains strong because there has been no local equivalent of the 8,000 job cuts announced at San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc., Kyser said. Others agree. ``People are going to sit on the sidelines On the sidelines An investor who decides not to invest due to market uncertainty. on the sidelines Of or relating to investors who, having assessed the market, have decided to avoid committing their funds. for a while, but this is not the Armageddon approaching us,'' said Leonard Mitchell, director of the USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. Center for Economic Development. He anticipates the market will at least stabilize and possibly rebound in the next eight months, but not before layoffs at some of the larger companies in Southern California. If anything, a market downturn will lower prices, leading to an increase in exports as long as the economies of these important trading partners hold up, he said. ``If we don't see purchases from the Pacific Rim, investors are going to move out of the stock market,'' Mitchell said. In the short term, the tech slide has been particularly hard on the Westside commercial real estate market, freeing up an estimated 1 million square feet. The impact has been far less on companies clustered along the 101 Corridor between Sherman Oaks and Camarillo. Rather than pioneer Internet commerce and entertainment, many of those firms are involved in the unglamorous world of building and supporting the Internet infrastructure. Like the stock market itself, the dot-com disaster has not been as immediate a concern to many Southern California businesses as the ongoing energy crisis. Nor is the prospect of a strike by writers and actors this summer, which could cripple a powerhouse of the region's economy - Hollywood and the businesses that support it - at a particularly inopportune in·op·por·tune adj. Inappropriate or ill-timed; not opportune. in·op  por·tune time, Kyser said. ``2001 has come with a growing list of risks to the economy,'' he said. CAPTION(S): photo, chart Photo: (color) Specialist Todd Christie sports a construction hat during Monday's trading in New York, where many investors watched Wall Street plummet. Richard Drew/Associated Press Chart: THE FALLOUT 15 Companies based or with operations in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and their losses Monday. SOURCE: Daily News research |
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