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Tag: Industries

Hungry Cooks: Poverty Wages and Homelessness in the Fast Food Industry

May 1, 2023 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

The fast food industry is a poverty employer, with a larger share of its workers in poverty than any other industry. All low-wage workers face some level of risk that they will become homeless. This risk is compounded in the fast food industry by the combination of low wages, part-time work and employee churn. These interlocking hazards undercut workers’ ability to pay their rent.

Breaking the Fall: Successful Homeless Interventions in the Covid Pandemic

December 14, 2022 / By Daniel Flaming, Seth Pickens and Patrick Burns / Economic Roundtable

Breaking the Fall – Covid Interventions Prevented Homelessness Struggling workers are either everyone’s responsibility now or everyone’s problem later. When poorly paid workers become jobless at the thin edge of the job market and then unable to pay rent, homeless destitution follows. In fact, we are equipped with the tools we need to protect workers from the sharper edges of joblessness and to combat homelessness. 

Locked Out: Unemployment and Homelessness in the Covid Economy

January 11, 2021 / By Daniel Flaming, Anthony W. Orlando, Patrick Burns and Seth Pickens / Economic Roundtable

COVID-driven loss of jobs and employment income will cause the number of homeless workers to increase each year through 2023. Without large-scale, government employment programs the Pandemic Recession is projected to cause twice as much homelessness as the 2008 Great Recession. The Economic Roundtable used data from the 2008 Great Recession to estimate the linkage between job loss and homelessness and forecast the amount and type of pandemic-driven homelessness in Los Angeles, California and the United States. 

Ebbing Tides in the Golden State: Impacts of the 2008 Recession on California and Los Angeles County

June 8, 2009 / By Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns and Michael Matsunaga / Economic Roundtable, the California Endowment

The most concrete characteristic of a recession is that demand disappears for some of the commodities produced by workers and unwanted unemployment is imposed on a large segment of the labor force. With growing job losses in the current recession it is important to know, whose boat falls when the economic tide recedes? 

Jobs in LA’s Green Technology Sector

March 1, 2006 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / the City of Los Angeles' Workforce Investment Board-Development Dept. and Department of Water and Power

Los Angeles has been a path breaker in setting increasingly ambitious environmental goals and introducing innovative technologies to achieve those goals.  The City commissioned this study to investigate the job opportunities that would result from becoming a center of production for “green” goods and services that provide renewable or less-polluting sources of energy, and help reduce pollutants from our existing industrial base, transportation infrastructure, and residential communities.  

Hopeful Workers, Marginal Jobs: LA’s Off-The-Books Labor Force

December 5, 2005 / By Daniel Flaming, Brent Haydamack and Pascale Joassart / the City of Los Angeles' LA Economy Project

There is extensive evidence of a growing informal labor force in Los Angeles City and County, along with stagnant employment in the formal labor market. Between 2000 and 2004, the working age population in the county grew by 4.9 percent, but the number of wage and salary jobs (i.e., 
Photography by Waltarrrrr, "1992 Los Angeles Riots". Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on April 29, 2012, taken on May 2, 1992 in South Los Angeles. Protected under the CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED license.

South Los Angeles Rising: Opportunities for Economic Self-Sufficiency Ten Years After the 1992 Civil Unrest

May 6, 2002 / By Mark Drayse and Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

This briefing paper reports on business recovery in buildings damaged during the 1992 civil unrest, the availability of jobs in different areas of Los Angeles, and changes in South Los Angeles’ industry base since 1992. Where were buildings damaged during the civil unrest located? Most buildings damaged during the civil unrest were located on commercial streets in high poverty neighborhoods in South Los Angeles. 
Photograph by Karen Ambrose Hickey for the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, "Somos Unos" Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on May 2, 2011, taken on May 1, 2011. Protected under the CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED license.

Workers Without Rights

May 6, 2002 / By Pascale Joassart and Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

The informal economy produces legal goods and services that are not effectively regulated. Such activities can give rise to abuses by employers who fail to respect basic labor, safety, immigration, and tax laws, leaving workers without rights. By definition the informal economy is hidden "under the table" and "off the books." However, by comparing different sources of employment data we can identify industries where a significant share of jobs appear to be unreported. Industry characteristics such as worker demographics can also be used as an additional indicator of informal employment.
Los Angeles County, Department of Public Social Services, 2014.

On the Edge: A Progress Report on Welfare to Work in Los Angeles

January 1, 1999 / By Daniel Flaming, Mark Drayse and Peter Force / Economic Roundtable

The loss of a welfare safety net for most adults for most of their lives makes the quality of jobs available to the working poor and their success in finding and keeping jobs increasingly important. The economic and civic life of the Los Angeles region will be shaped by connections that are made, or fail to be made, between the growing ranks of working poor and opportunities for steady, sustaining, productive employment. 

South Bay Economic Adjustment Strategy

November 1, 1998 / By Daniel Flaming, Mark Drayse, Michael Beltramo-Beltramo and Associates, Tom Jirovsky-Kosmont and Associates Inc, Frank Taplin-Kosmont and Associates, David Rigby-UCLA Department of Geography and John Wilson-USC Department of Geography / the County of Los Angeles South Bay Communities and Community Development Commission

The South Bay Economic Adjustment Strategy has been prepared to help elected officials, public sector staff, business leaders, and citizens take coordinated, effective action to recover jobs lost because of defense cutbacks. The strategy has been prepared under a grant from the Office of Economic Adjustment in the Department of Defense that was administered by Los Angeles County’s Community Development Commission. 
Photograph "Long Beach McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Plant; 28.07.1995" by Aero Icarus, Zürich, Switzerland, obtained and used 1995. Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on August 26, 2010, taken on July 28, 1995. Protected under the CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED license.

Economic Restructuring in Long Beach: Opportunities and Challenges in a Post-Aerospace Economy

September 1, 1997 / By Mark Drayse, Daniel Flaming and David L. Rigby,UCLA Lewis Center For Regional Policy Studies / Economic Roundtable

The City of Long Beach and other centers of aerospace production that reaped the rewards of the 1980s defense-spending boom must now confront the realities of restructuring. Since World War II, the Douglas Aircraft plant made Long Beach an important center of the US aerospace industry and dominated the local economy. In 1992, the Long Beach aerospace industry employed 36,100 workers, which was 22 percent of the city's total employment. Almost all of these workers were employed by McDonnell Douglas. Long Beach aerospace workers earned a total payroll of over $1.5 billion, which was 30 percent of the city's total payroll. These figures understate the total impact of aerospace on the Long Beach economy, through linkages with firms in other industries that provide inputs to the aerospace industry, and purchases of goods and services by aerospace workers.

Post Cold War Frontiers: Defense Downsizing and Conversion in Los Angeles

January 1, 1996 / By Michael Oden-Rutgers University Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, Ann Markusen-Rutgers University Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, Daniel Flaming and Mark Drayse / Economic Roundtable

This study examines how firms, workers, and regional economic development institution are dealing with the severe effects of defense downsizing in the Los Angeles region. Between 1988 and 1994 the Los Angeles region lost 127,000 jobs in defense-related industries, including aircraft, missiles, instruments, and electronics. The long economic slump set off by defense cuts has incited a major debate between the advocates of regional institution building and proactive economic development and those arguing for the laissez-faire approach of reducing taxes, wages, and environmental costs. 
Photograph by Kevin Haggerty, "Queen Mary" uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on November 21, 2005, taken on November 20, 2005. Protected under the CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED license.

Long Beach Business: 1994 Long Beach Business Survey

April 27, 1995 / By Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

SYNOPSIS Purpose The 1994 Business Survey was initiated by the City of Long Beach to guide and strengthen its business outreach and retention efforts. Technical guidance, data analysis, and report preparation was carried out by the Economic Roundtable. The purpose was to: Identify the concerns, needs and opportunities of businesses in order to strengthen City programs for supporting Long Beach’s economic base. 
U.S. Department of Energy "Exterior of ... Paper Mill with Heat Extractor ... Between Two Smoke Stacks."

Jobs and Air Quality: Analysis of Emissions Per Job by Industry in the South Coast Basin

January 8, 1993 / By Daniel Flaming, Elizabeth Reid and Mark Drayse / South Coast Air Quality Management District

Overview The Economic Roundtable merged site-specific 1990 employment and emission data to analyze emissions per job among industries in the South Coast Basin. One use of this analysis is to identify environmentally friendly industries that are potential targets for economic development. The analysis focused on manufacturing industries. 

Los Angeles County Economic Adjustment Strategy for Defense Reductions

April 1, 1992 / By Daniel Flaming, Michael Beltramo-Beltramo and Associates, Odessa Dubinsky, Elizabeth Reid, Katherine Bulow-Bulow And Associates, David Hensley-UCLA Business Forcasting Project and Allen J. Scott-UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies / Los Angeles County Community Development Commission, United States Department of Commerce: Economic Development Administration

Background An interdisciplinary research team analyzed information about the labor market, economy, industries, and defense linkages of Los Angeles County. The report recommends an economic adjustment strategy to reduce severe job losses projected as a result of cutbacks in defense funding for Los Angeles County industries. 

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